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LIFE OF ALPHONSO TAFT 
of CINCINNATI 




ALPHONSO TAFT 



LIFE OF 

ALPHONSO TAFT 



By 
LEWIS ALEXANDER LEONARD 



"The history of a nation is the lives of its great 
men." — Carlyle 



HAWKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 

(Incorporated) 

2028 Fifth Avenue 
New York 



rp/z u ^ 



Copyright, 1920 

By 

LEWIS ALEXANDER LEONARD 



g)CI.A571530 

JUL -2 iij^O 



To an able and unselfish son of a noble father — 

To 

HON. CHARLES PHELPS TAFT 

of Cincinnati, O. 

This book is respectfully dedicated by the author 



TABLE OF CO:NrTENTS 



PAGE 

Chapter 1. An Interesting Period— The Tafts Go to Vermont— 
Alphonso Taft's School Days— In College— Inci- 
dents of and Costs of a College Course 25 

2. Teaching at Ellington — Rum and Tobacco Contests — 

Tutors and Prepares for the Law — Looks Over the 
West and Decides to Settle in Cincinnati 35 

3. Goes to His New Home — A Trip on the Ohio River- 

Incidents of the Old Days— The Queen City of the 
"West — Marriage of Alphonso Taft and Fanny Phelps 39 

4. Interests in Education — Old Woodward — A City Coun- 

cil Fight — Cincinnati Clean and Beautiful — Pig Iron 
Kelly Tells of a Visit 45 

5. House of Refuge — The Children's Love of Judge Taft 

— His Visits — Some Incidents 51 

6. An Address that Attracted Great Attention at the Time 

and Today Seems Almost Prophetic — The Railroads 

of Cincinnati 59 

7. The Last Whig Convention — Webster Tricked Out of 

the Nomination — Judge Taft Exerts Himself to 
Save Webster — With Toombs, He Goes to Washing- 
ton 93 

8. Judge Taft's First Great Sorrow — Mrs. Fanny Phelps 

Taft Passes Away — A Memoir 99 

9. Founding the Republican Party — The First Meeting 

in Pittsburg — Judge Taft One of the Delegates from 
Cincinnati 105 

10. The First Republican National Convention — Taft and 

Spooner Find the Keynote Orator — The Two Spoon- 
ers — Odd Characters in the Convention Ill 

11. The Cincinnati Observatory — Professor Mitchell and 

His Friend Taft — The Fight for an Observatory in 
the United States — The U, S. Weather Bureau Has 
Its Start in Cincinnati 115 

12. Marriage to Louise Maria Torrey — Silver Wedding — 

Learning Shorthand of Ben Pitman — Hobbies and 
Recreations 119 

13. Cicero and Caesar — A Paper that Replied to the Work 

on Roman History by Napoleon III — The Orator 
and Warrior Compared 123 



12 ALPHOXSO TAFT 

PAGE 

14. Ab Judge and Lawyer — Some of the Great Cases He 

Tried — The McMiken Case — The Bible in the Public 
Schools — Political Activities — Eesidence Burned — 
Death of His Father 127 

15. The Kepublican Convention that Nominated Lincoln — 

Judge Taft Sits with the Vermonters and They 
Break to the Man from Illinois 133 

16. Beginning of the Civil War — Activities in Aid of the 

Soldiers and Victims of the War — The English Cot- 
ton Workers — Story of Sheridan's Ride 189 

17. The Party Struggle of 1875 — Judge Taft Triumphant 

in Defeat — His Great Efforts in Support of Hayes. 145 

18. Ferguson Recognizes the Indispensable Aid Rendered 

by Taft in the Work of Securing the Southern 
Railroad — The Objections, Delays and Final Tri- 
umph 149 

19. Judge Taft, as Secretary of War, Succeeds Belknap — 

He and Mrs. Taft in Washington — Official Work 
and Social Duties 155 

20. As Attorney-General — The Disputed Presidency — Judge 

Taft Cooperates with J. Proctor Knott in Solving 
the Complication — Cries of Fraud 1G3 

21. Judge Taft Appointed Minister to Austria-Hungary — 

Secures a Pleasant Residence in Vienna — Something 
of the Customs of the People — Comments on the 
City and Its Surroundings 167 

22. Minister Taft Handles the Question of Excluding 

American Imports — Some Further Descriptions of 
the Beautiful City 175 

23. Arrives in Russia — Impressions of the Czar and Czar- 

ina — Complicated Questions of Citizenship — Inter- 
esting Interview with the New York Tribune 183 

24. Mr. Chas. P. Taft Sends an Emissary to the Bedside 

of General Grant — Mrs. Grant and Mrs. Jefferson 
Davis in After Years 189 

25. His Last Days — A Winter in California, Where the 

End Came — A Great and Good Man Passes Away. . 193 

26. The Tafts of Today— Charles Phelps Taft, Peter Raw- 

son Taft, Hulbert Taft, William Howard Taft, 
Henry W. Taft, Horace D. Taft, Frances Taft 
Edwards, Etc 195 



Appendix. The Tafts of Yesterday, Embracing an Address Deliv- 
ered by Hon. Alphonso Taft at Uxbridge, Mass., 
August 12, 1874 235 



ILLUSTEATIONS 



PAGE 

Alphonso Taf t Frontispiece '^ 

Certificate to Alphonso Taft from Yale College in handwriting of 

President Day 23 ^ 

The Taft Home at West Townshend, Vt 24 - 

Cincinnati as seen from the Newport side in 1810 31 '-' 

Cincinnati in 1840, the year of Judge Taft's arrival 61 " 

Zanesville, when young Taft first visited that city 77 -'•- 

Zanesville — The first hotel of the city 9.5 < 

Telegram from President Grant 157 " 



SOUKCES 



Original letters. 

County histories of Counties of Massachusetts, Vermont and Con- 
necticut. 

Local histories of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. 

All available original records. 

General histories. 

Records of State and War Departments and Department of Justice, 
Washington, D. C. 

Files of Brattleboro, Cincinnati, New York and Washington daily 
papers. 

Files of the Fermonter. 



PKEFACE BY MR. HENRY CLEWS 

During my active business life there have lived and died 
thousands of good American citizens who have served their 
country well and lived lives that might well serve as models 
for generations. Among them Alphonso Taft deserves a 
most honorable place, and I am sincerely glad that a history 
of his life has been written by one who as a student and an 
author has demonstrated his fitness to perform the pleasant 
duty of recording in this book incidents and historical facts 
pertaining to so distinguished a man as Judge Taft. Like 
many great men of the last generation, Judge Taft was born 
on a farm and worked his way through college, thus proving 
that he had a desire for higher education and the grit to 
obtain it by his own efforts ; and his distinguished sons, 
Charles P., William H., Henry W., and Horace D., inher- 
ited from him the qualities which have made them such 
successful men. Judge Taft was an able lawyer and a just 
judge. His name was a synonym for honesty and fair 
dealing. Mr. Leonard is to be thanked for placing before 
the public a record of the life and activities of Judge Taft, 
and I predict that this book will have the large circulation 
it deserves, as it contains so much that is most interesting as 
well as instructive. 




New York, April 10, 1920. 



INTRODUCTION 



Alphonso Taft was the only American Statesman who 
held two Cabinet positions and two first class foreign mis- 
sions. This fact alone would entitle him to first rank among 
the great men of his country. He played a big part in the 
affairs of his city, State and Nation. And from the begin- 
ning to the end he played it ably, modestly, and well. From 
soon after his arrival in Cincinnati he took an active and 
useful part in the municipal and civic affairs of the city and 
he early and easily went to the front as a leanied and suc- 
cessful lawyer. As a practitioner he was conspicuous, not 
only for his success at the bar but also for his generous and 
kind treatment of those who had the advantage of his ser- 
vices. Rich clients paid him well, but the less wealthy paid 
lightly, or not at all. 

When he was well advanced in life he remarked one day : 
" I really never made any money practicing law ; I main- 
tained my family and educated my children; that was all. 
Whatever I have accumulated is mainly the result of the 
increase in value of the property I bought on Fourth street 
early after I came to Cincinnati." But it was as a jurist 
that those who knew him best prized him most highly. 

On one occasion when Judge William H. Taft afterwards 
President of the United States, had been on the bench but a 
little while I happened to go into his courtroom with an 
old lawyer friend of Judge Taft, a very able man, and one 
competent to speak on such matters. The young Judge was 
rendering an oral decision. My companion soon became 
deeply interested and turned to me with, " Listen to that " — 
" Now just listen, will you ? " The case was one growing 
out of the infringement on the label on a catsup bottle. The 
defendant had produced a label of the same color but with 
entirely different wording. The Judge went on to analyze 



20 ALPHONSO TAFT 

the case, cite authorities, and explain the differences. As 
he finished the old lawyer said with great earnestness, " That 
young man has the judicial temperament, and the power of 
analysis and clear presentation of his father to an extent 
that is amazing," and he went on, " Alphonso Taft was 
naturally and by education one of the greatest of judges. 
His friends regretted that he did not head for the U. S. 
Supreme Court instead of entering active politics. When 
he was made Attorney General of the United States, we 
hoped that General Grant would find a place for him on the 
bench of the ^Nation's highest tribunal. But no available 
vacancy seemed to occur." 

When the old Whig party went to pieces he readily grasped 
the necessity for a new organization to succeed it and he 
believed that the slavery question offered the basis and rally- 
ing cry for the new party. Never a radical he seized upon 
the various phases of the anti-slavery issues that appealed 
most effectively to the common sense, sympathy, and intui- 
tive justice of the people. As a delegate to the first JSTational 
Republican Convention at Philadelphia, he was earnest, ac- 
tive, and useful. It was he, with his friend Thomas Spooner 
of Cincinnati, that designated the keynote orator on that 
epoch-making occasion. 

His selection as Secretary of War and his advancement 
to the position of Attorney General of the United States 
were made on merit and with little of the political influence 
that frequently controls such opportunities. The same can 
be said of his appointment to the Court of Austria Hungary, 
and of his promotion to the Court of the Czar. Returning 
from abroad he lived quietly in Cincinnati until the last few 
years of his life, which he spent in California. 

Judge Taft was a large man, large in body as well as in 
mind. He had to a wonderful degree the kindness, genial- 
ity, and laudable qualities which so often go with large men. 
He was one you would know with affectionate regard in life 
and about whom you would delight to write after he had 
passed away. 

This is a carefully and conservatively told storv of the 



INTRODUCTION 21 

life work of a most active, useful and able man. It is the 
story of one who secured a fine education through his own 
efforts, and rose to distinction by means of his own ambition, 
industry and integrity. It is a story to inspire young men 
to nobler efforts and to make them take greater pride in the 
men of the past and be more hopeful, more ambitious, and 
more determined for their own futures. We are told that 
now more than at any previous period, our young men are 
anxious to read of the careers of successful men, especially 
of those who have achieved success by their own efforts. 
Such readers will be pleased, entertained and inspired by 
studying the life of Alphonso Taft. 

LEWIS A. LEONARD 

May 1, 1920 



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CERTIFICATE TO ALPHONSO TAFT IN THE HANDWRITING OF PRESIDENT DAY OF YALE 




THE TAFT HOME, WEST TOWNSHEND, VT. 



CHAPTER I 

An Interesting Period — The Tafts Go to Vermont — 
Alphonso Taft's School Days — In College — Inci- 
dents OF and Costs of a College Course. 

A life spanning the time of Alphonso Taft's career covered 
the most interesting and progressive era in the world's his- 
tory. Gren. Washington had been dead but ten years when 
he was born and the doings of the revolutionary period were 
household topics in his boyhood days. The federal consti- 
tution was in its experimental period during his student life 
and he was ten years old when George III died. He wit- 
nessed the development of farm utensils from the plow with 
a wooden mold-board that he followed in that rich Vermont 
soil to the splendid steam machinery of the modern farm. 
He saw slavery abolished in every part of the world, his own 
state of Vermont being the first in America to do it, and he 
beheld the principles of a Republican government established 
in his own country. He saw the development of the steam 
engine, the railroad, steam navigation, the electric telegraph, 
the telephone, the invention of matches, the cotton gin, the 
sewing machine and the thousands of other articles that con- 
tribute to the comfort and convenience of mankind. 

'No period in the world's history is comparable to it unless 
it be that era around the sixteenth century that gave man- 
kind Christopher Columbus with the discovery of America, 
the Reformation, Sir Isaac Newton, Galileo, Copernicus, 
and the others who helped to light the world as it emerged 
from the dark ages. Even the gleam thrown upon the human 
pathway at that time was a mere glimmer compared with 
the effulgence shed during the century just closed. The 
world made greater progress during the nineteenth century 
than it did from the days of Abraham to the establishment 
of the American Republic. 

It is of one who lived a life of active, useful, and intel- 



26 ALPHONSO TAFT 

kctual industry, covering most of this period, that these 
pages are written. 

Alphonso Taft, teacher, lawyer, statesman, and successful 
worker in civic affairs, was born Nov. 5, 1810, on a farm 
in East Townshend, Windham County, Vermont, seventeen 
miles from Brattleboro. He was the third generation of 
Tafts who had lived on that fertile and attractive spot. 

When Aaron Taft, his grandfather, determined to better 
the condition of his family and himself by moving from 
Uxbridge, Mass., to the new State of Vermont, he showed 
the Taft discrimination in selecting the best land to be found. 
That had been a family trait. At Mendon, generations 
before, the Tafts occupied the finest farms in the town, and 
at Uxbridge the same rule had been followed. 

When Aaron Taft had made up his mind to move to Ver- 
mont, he also determined to settle on a fertile place. His 
theory was that it costs no more to cultivate good land than 
poor while the returns are so much greater. Therefore, in 
the fall after he had determined to move to Vermont, he 
made trips to various sections and looked carefully, as well 
as critically, for Aaron Taft was a competent farmer and 
knew soil as well as conditions likely to make a good home 
and a profitable farm. 

The arrangements for the trip were perfected in the fall 
so that the journey could be made as soon as the winter 
weather put the roads in a condition desirable for such travel. 
Even the stopping places were designated and the time to be 
taken between each was definitely marked out. These were 
days when oxen were the reliable draft animals. Five ox 
teams drew a large and a small sled, carrying the implements 
and household effects, while Aaron Taft and the family with 
some light articles traveled in a covered sled that years after- 
wards would have been described as a prairie schooner on 
runners. Thus the cavalcade marched on, except Peter R., 
the fourteen-year-old son, who walked the entire distance and 
drove the cow. This was no slight achievement. A walk 
of eighty miles through the snows of a typical New England 
winter was something to remember, to say nothing of driving 



AN INTERESTING PERIOD 27 

the cow. And though Mr. Peter R. Taft lived to be an 
elderly man and filled many honorable positions, it is said 
that he related no incident of his life with as much pride 
and pleasure as the account of the walk from Uxbridge, 
Mass., to Windham County, Vermont. And Peter made no 
complaint except that if it had not been for the rest of the 
procession he and the cow could have made the distance in 
much less time. The snow at the time was six feet deep in 
Southern Vermont. 

Arriving at their destination, the spot that has ever since 
been known as Taft's Hill was covered with snow that glis- 
tened in a beautiful midday sun. All were delighted, but 
the oxen could not draw the loads up the hill. However, 
welcoming neighbors came to the rescue and fifteen yoke of 
oxen were used in making the last half mile of the journey. 

The boy's mother was very anxious about him, especially 
during the first part of the trip. She insisted that he sit 
on the back seat and lead the cow. But this arrangement 
did not meet the approval of either Peter or the animal as 
was shown by several ineffectual efforts to put it into 
operation. 

Aaron Taft had bought the farm of Peter Hazeltine, con- 
taining one hundred acres with improvements. It was a 
good farm — an unusually good farm — and it ought to have 
been, for Aaron Taft paid him five hundred and sixty-seven 
dollars for it. This transaction represented a large payment 
by Mr. Taft. Next to air and water, land was the most 
plentiful article considered. Aaron Taft had looked over 
the available properties and bought this farm on the 23rd of 
December, 1796, and returned to Uxbridge in time for the 
removal of his family at the first opportunity during the 
winter. They reached their new home early in February. 
In 1769 Aaron Taft had married Rhoda Rawson and for 
years had been a leading citizen of Uxbridge, having held 
the position of town clerk for many years. 

There was quite a movement of settlers of Southern Massa- 
chusetts to the rich lands of Vermont about this time, and 
the Tafts caught the fever. Aaron Taft had been a college 



28 ALPHONSO TAFT 

student and in all respects a cultivated man and soon be- 
came a useful citizen of Windham County. He lived until 
1808. The farm had been well cultivated under his care 
and had yielded well for the family. 

Peter Rawson Taft, a vigorous youngster, grew up and 
came into possession of Taft Hill, a much finer farm when 
he took it than when Peter Hazeltine sold it to his father 
some ten years before. He had attended the district school 
and had the assistance of a highly educated father, and he 
was a great reader and had become equipped as a well-in- 
formed man. He taught school, and was made county sur- 
veyor and magistrate, and while yet a young man filled the 
most important Town and County offices. Later he was 
chosen Probate Judge and Judge of the Windham County 
Court, and in 1833-34 he represented Townshend in the Gen- 
eral Assembly. While occupying many of these positions 
he continued to act as Justice of the Peace, making the 
record of twenty-two years as a justice. 

He married Sylvia Howard, the daughter of Henry How- 
ard, whose father had bought the farm adjoining Taft's Hill 
and had built the first frame house in the town. The How- 
ard property had by this union become incorporated into 
the Taft Hill farm. Thus Peter Rawson Taft lived the life 
of a busy practical country gentleman, beloved by his family 
and respected, admired and honored by his neighbors. 
Later in life he removed to Cincinnati to join his son, 
Alphonso, who had become a prominent citizen of that city. 

Alphonso Taft, only son of Peter R. Taft and Sylvia 
Howard Taft, was born in Townshend, Vermont. He in- 
herited the strong points of the Tafts, the Rawsons and the 
Howards, whose blood mingled in his veins. From a child 
he was large of frame, vigorous of intellect and unusually 
ambitious. As a boy he did chores on the farm and about 
the house, but did them with a determination that farming 
was not to be his lifework. He was a good student and 
encouraged as well as aided by his father he soon passed 
through the district school. 

After a session at the academy, he taught the school at 



AN INTEEESTING PEEIOD 29 

West Townshend, saving every cent lie could for the expense 
of the college education he had in mind. In many other 
ways he was able to earn money, especially by helping his 
father as a surveyor. During the years 1827-28 he attended 
Amherst for three or four sessions. He made the trip from 
Brattleboro to North Hadley by boat, which could be done 
inexpensively, and walked from North Hadley, ten miles 
across to Amherst. Alphonso was a powerful lad as well as 
a great walker, and thought nothing of these ten-mile tramps 
across country, going to and returning from Amherst. This 
institution, then only three or four years a college, did not 
quite measure up to Alphonso's idea of the institution he 
would attend after preparation for his collegiate course. He 
had Yale in his mind from the beginning, and in this he was 
encouraged by his father. By his work of tutoring and his 
teaching in the village high school, he found himself ready 
to enter Yale in 1829. 

The President of Yale University spoke of Alphonso Taft 
as a gentleman of liberal attainments, of estimable char- 
acter, and disting-uished in literature and science. And an- 
other who knew him well mentioned him as " A man of high 
principle, rugged honesty and sterling integrity, and withal 
a strong and able man." These characteristics of the man 
were indicated by every act and impulse of the boy. He 
passed through college in a most creditable manner, gradu- 
ating third in his class. 

While in college Alphonso Taft took a deep interest in 
society activities, and was one of the first members of Skull 
and Bones. He was also a member of Brothers in Unity, 
and of Phi Beta Kappa. 

The catalogue of the graduating year of Mr. Taft is inter- 
esting. There were ninety-three members of his class in the 
senior year. Reverend Jeremiah Day was President of the 
College, Professor Benjamin Silliman was Professor of 
Chemistry, Professor James L. Kingsley was Professor of 
Latin, Professor Denison Olmstead was Professor of Mathe- 
matics and Natural Philosophy, and Professor Theodore D. 
Woolsey was Professor of the Greek Language and Litera- 



30 ALPHONSO TAFT 

ture. The undergraduates in the Academic Department 
numbered 354. There were in addition forty-nine theo- 
logical students and thirty-one law students. The curricu- 
lum for the senior class was as follows : 

I. Blair's Rhetoric. 

Stewart's Philosophy of the Mind. 
Brown's Philosophy of the Mind. 
Paley's Moral Philosophy. 
Greek and Latin. 

II. Paley's Natural Theology. 
Evidences of Christianity. 
Greek and Latin. 

III. Say's Political Economy. 

The following comment is well worth reading at this time : 
"The object of the system of instruction to the under- 
graduates in the college, is not to give a partial education, 
consisting of a few branches only; nor, on the other hand, 
to give a superjicial education, containing a little of almost 
everything; nor to finish the details of either a professional 
or practical education ; but to commence a thorough course, 
and to carry it as far as the time of the student's residence 
here will allow. 

" It is intended to maintain such a proportion between 
the different branches of literature and science, as to form 
a proper symmetry and balance of character. In laying the 
foundation of a thorough education, it is necessary that all 
the important faculties be brought into exercise. When cer- 
tain mental endowments receive a much higher culture than 
others, there is a distortion in the intellectual character. 
The powers of the mind are not developed in their fairest 
proportions by studying langiiages alone, or mathematics 
alone, or natural or political science alone. The object in 
the proper collegiate department is not to teach that which 
is peculiar to any one of the professions but to lay the founda- 
tion which is common to them all. There are separate 



AN INTERESTING PERIOD 33 

schools of Medicine, Law and Theology, connected with the 
college, as well as in various parts of the country, which are 
open to all who are prepared to enter on professional studies. 
With these, the under-graduate course is not intended to 
interfere. It contains those subjects only which ought to 
be understood by every one who aims at a thorough educa- 
tion. The principles of science and literature are the com- 
mon foundation of all high intellectual attainments. They 
give that discipline and elevation of the mind which are the 
best preparation for the study of a profession, or of the 
operations which are peculiar to the higher mercantile, man- 
ufacturing or agricultural establishments." 

A comparison of the cost of education in 1833 with that 
at the present time is interesting. 

The annual charges in the treasurer's bill are: 

For instruction $33 . 00 

For rent of chamber in college from 6 to 12 dollars, 

average 9.00 

For ordinary repairs and contingencies 2 . 40 

For general damages, sweeping, etc., about 3.30 

For wood for recitation rooms, about 1.30 



$49.00 



Besides this the student may be charged for damages done 
by himself, and a small sum for printing catalogues and 
other occasional expenses. 

Board is furnished in commons by the Steward at cost, 
about $1.60 per week, or $64.00 a year, not including vaca- 
tions. It varies, however, with the price of provisions. 
Wood is procured by the Corporation and distributed to 
those students who apply for it, at cost and charges. 

The students provide for themselves bed and bedding, 
furniture for their rooms, candles, books, stationery and 
washing. There are also, in the several classes, taxes of 
a small amount for the fuel in the recitation rooms, cata- 
logues, etc. If books and furniture are sold when the stu- 



34 ALPHONSO TAFT 

dent has no further necessity for them, the expense incurred 

by their use will not be great. 

The following may be considered as a near estimate of 

the necessary expenses, without including apparel, pocket 

money, traveling and board in vacations : 

Treasurer's bill as above $49 $49 

Board in commons, 40 weeks from 60 to 70 

8 " 16 
5 " 15 
5 " 15 
8 " 18 
5 " 7 



Fuel and light 

Use of books and stationery 

Use of furniture, bed and bedding. 

Washing 

Taxes in the classes, etc 



Total $140 to $190 

The following admonition is interesting: 

'* With regard to apparel, and what is called the pocket- 
money, no general estimate can be made. These are the ar- 
ticles in which the expenses of the individuals differ most; 
and in which some are unwarrantably extravagant. There 
is nothing by which the character and scholarship of the 
students of this college is more endangered than by a free 
indulgence in the use of money. Great caution with regard 
to this is a requisite on the part of the parents. What is 
more than sufficient to defray the ordinary expenses will 
expose the student to numerous temptations; and will not 
contribute either to his respectability or happiness." 



CHAPTER II 

Teaching at Ellington — Rum and Tobacco Contests 

TUTOES AND PrEPAEES FOE THE LaW LoOKS OvER 

THE West and Decides to Settle in Cincinnati. 

At the time of young Taft's graduation from Yale, Judge 
Hall, head of the High School at Ellington, Conn., found 
himself in need of a teacher, and made his wants known to 
the college. 

Alphonso Taft was recommended for the place, and after 
some correspondence with Judge Hall was engaged. He 
returned to his home in Vermont to make such advantageous 
use of his time as was possible till the opening of the Elling- 
ton School in the fall. He taught summer term in the acad- 
emy, tutored some boys preparing for college and helped his 
father on the farm, as well as with some jobs of surveying. 
Altogether he enjoyed a busy and profitable summer and 
had accumulated a tidy little sum when he was ready to go 
to Ellington. But this money was not to go for traveling 
expenses. He had other plans in mind. It was only about 
eighty miles, the roads were good, the scenery fine and the 
trip would be pleasant as well as economical and he made 
the journey on foot, the first of several made in the same 
way over this route. Ellington was a quaint village located 
in the northeastern part of Tolland Township, some fifteen 
miles from Hartford. He was well impressed on reaching 
the place. The High School, an Academy, and Judge Hall's 
house, were spacious and well-appearing buildings. He 
found Judge Hall a typical New England schoolmaster of 
that day. He was competent, positive and punctual, and 
expected the same of all those around him. 

Ellington was a town that stood out in contrast with most 
parts of Tolland County and the young teacher couldn't help 
being deeply interested in the discussions that rent the com- 
munity. Previously the section had been entirely a rye 
growing and gin making one, but sentiment adverse to gin 



36 ALPHONSO TAFT 

making had put the rve and gin industry into disrepute, 
and tobacco was taking the place of rye as a staple crop. 
The friends of rye and gin argiied that tobacco no more 
sustained life than the old products, but as the soil and 
climate were adapted to the production of fine tobacco the 
friends of the weed won. The discussions were at the point 
of greatest interest when the young teacher reached Judge 
Hall's school, and were kept up with more or less intensity 
during his residence there. He took little or no part in the 
arguments, but was always interested. He became identi- 
fied with the lyceuni, and soon was one of the most interested 
and entertaining of the members. And so passed pleasantly 
and profitably his first year at Ellington. Judge Hall was 
pleased with the work of the young man and invited him 
back for another year. As there was nothing better in view 
he accepted and arranged to continue his work at Ellington. 
At the close of the school he walked back to Townshend and 
put in another summer much as he had done the previous 
one. And when his work at Ellington was completed and 
he had made arrangements for other activities he walked 
back to Townshend, making four times he had traversed this 
route on foot, and he insisted that the trip was never a 
hardship. 

Though earnestly urged to return to Ellington he decided 
not to do so because he had other plans in mind. He had 
determined to study law, and after his admission to the bar 
to go west and practice. With this in view he returned to 
Yale College as a tutor, and while so engaged entered the 
law school. He graduated from the Yale Law School in 
1838 and was admitted to the Connecticut bar at New 
Haven. Though frugal and thrifty, young Taft was in no 
sense parsimonious. While at law school he became inter- 
ested in an unusually bright and promising boy, St. John 
Etheredge. The father of this boy suddenly lost his fortune 
and St. John was about to be taken from school. At this 
stage his friend Taft came to the rescue and paid the college 
expenses for the remainder of the time and had the satis- 
faction of seeing the young man graduate at the head of the 



TEACHING AT ELLINGTON 37 

class. It was the purpose of Mr. Taft to associate young 
St. John with him as a law partner when he had become 
settled as a practitioner, but unfortunately the boy died soon 
after leaving college. He passed away at the Taft home in 
Townshend, Vt. 

Having rounded up his affairs and with a sum of money 
on hand which he believed would be sufficient to carry him 
to the time when his earnings could be relied upon, he deter- 
mined to make a trip West and select his future home. But 
first he went back to Townshend to spend the summer, or a 
part of it, and to talk over future plans. Much of this talk 
about the future was with Miss Fannie Phelps, who was the 
daughter of Charles Phelps of Townshend, one of the most 
prominent lawyers of Windham County. 

He had been strongly urged to settle in Zanesville, O. 
This was a promising city and there was believed to be a 
good opening for a lawyer. But his own inclination was 
towards Cincinnati, the sprightliest and most progressive 
city of the Central West. However, he would go West and 
carefully look over the situation for himself. On both his 
first and second visit he looked at a number of places that 
had been recommended, and on the second visit he spent 
considerable time in Zanesville seeing the sights and con- 
sidering the matter of making this place his future home, 
and here he was admitted to the Ohio bar. The main part 
of the old historical hotel which was the first in this section 
had been torn down some years before, and workmen were 
taking away the remainder while he was there. This his- 
toric hostelry stood at what was then the corner of Market 
and Second streets, a short distance from the river. Visitors 
were told that Louis Phillipe, King of France, was once a 
guest of this house. Mr. Mclntyre, the proprietor, was 
known far and wide. The incident of the King stopping 
there is told by Gen. Lewis Cass in his " Camp and Court 
of Louis Philippe " saying: " At Zanesville the party found 
the comfortable cabin of Mr. Mclntyre, whose name has been 
preserved in the King's memory, and whose house was a 
favorite place of rest and refreshment for all travelers who 



38 ALPHONSO TAFT 

at this early period were compelled to traverse that part of 
the country." This incident and many others of interest 
were related to young Taft by the friends who would have 
him make Zanesville his future home. His stay there was 
made very entertaining, and he always recalled it with pleas- 
ant memories, but with satisfaction that, though Zanesville 
was the place where he became an Ohio lawyer, he had de- 
cided on Cincinnati as his future home. 



CHAPTER III 

Goes to His 'New Home — A Trip on the Ohio River — 
Incidents of the Old Days — The Queen City of 
THE West — Marriage of Alphonso Taft and Fanny 
Phelps. 

In making his second trip West young Taft was able to 
lay out his plans more definitely ; the first time he merely 
was going to look around; this time he was going to Cin- 
cinnati, where he had determined to make his home. He 
laid out the best route, the one likely to be most comfortable 
and least expensive. This was from Brattleboro to Pitts- 
burgh and thence by steamer down the Ohio river to Cin- 
cinnati. Steamers were then plying between Pittsburgh and 
New Orleans, making stops at the principal places on the 
way. Young Taft so timed his trip as to make Cincinnati 
on the George Washington, the finest steamer on the western 
waters. To be sure of being on time he got to Pittsburgh 
two days before the sailing time of the steamer. But he 
went right on board and occupied the room that had been 
reserved for him. He didn't mind the wait as it gave him 
time to look around Pittsburgh and to take some walks into 
the surrounding country. Pittsburgh people then used wood 
for fuel and the city was very clean and attractive. With 
his affable manner and friendly ways he had become well 
acquainted with the officers of the boat and some of the 
passengers even before sailing time. He was greatly inter- 
ested in what the clerk told him of the George Washington, 
the pride of the Ohio and Mississippi trade. Mr. Roosevelt 
of New York, a man connected with the marine matters of 
the metropolis, conceived the idea of building a boat at Pitts- 
burgh for the western trade that should excel anything here- 
tofore constructed in size, beauty and convenience. The 
George Washington was the result of that effort and an 
amazing success she had proved to be. She was no longer 
a new craft, but was still the finest steamer afioat. Mr. 



40 ALPHONSO TAFT 

Taft was interested in the clerk's explanation of the origin 
of the word " stateroom." Mr. Koosevelt was a man of 
enterprise, money and ideas, and used all of these unspar- 
ingly in producing the George Washington. The boat was 
fitted with luxurious sleeping rooms as well as comfortable 
berths. He named the rooms for the 26 states, eight terri- 
tories, and one district. The passenger, instead of asking 
for No. 7, requested that he be assigned to Massachusetts or 
New Hampshire. On having the system explained to him 
Mr. Taft had asked for Vennont, and that room being taken 
he had been successful in getting Ohio, and a pleasant room 
it proved to be. Other owners of steamboats followed the 
example of Mr, Roosevelt, and rooms on the boats became 
staterooms. Finally the names of the states were dropped 
and numbers substituted, but the rooms continvied to be 
" staterooms." By sailing time the passenger list was well 
filled, and the trip down the Ohio was promptly commenced. 
And a great trip it was in those days, many of its features 
being new and some startling to the young New Englander. 
There were the business men, the folks going west, the swag- 
gering gamblers, and the travelers for pleasure from all over 
the world. There were the hustling roustabouts and the 
mate with scientific profanity urging them to greater speed 
in their work. At every stopping place wood for fuel was 
replenished and freight put ashore and taken aboard. The 
arrival of the steamer was an event at every town, people 
rushing to the landing to see the sights and hear the news. 
There were no telegraphs and the inhabitants of each locality 
mostly got the news from the steamboats. It was some five 
years after this that James K. Polk was informed of his 
nomination for the Presidency in this way. The delegation 
returning from the Convention, headed by Major Polk, his 
brother, was met at landing by James K. Polk, who had run 
down bare-headed with his long hair streaming in the wind 
and exclaimed, " Whom did they nominate? " His brother 
answered with " Who do you think ? " and got the reply, 
" Some damned fool that nobody had thought of." His 
brother came back with, " Guessed it the first time. You, 



HIS NEW HOME 41 

are the man." Such was the steamboat as the purveyor of 
news and such the interest at the landings in those days. 
And Mr. Taft enjoyed it all — the sights, the people at the 
stopping places, and the acquaintances he made on the trip. 
So pleasing were the surroundings and so interesting was it 
all that when the boat docked at Cincinnati and he went up 
to Col. Mack's hotel with some friends he had made, he really 
regretted that the voyage had come to an end. His stay at 
the hotel was not long for he wanted to get settled so that 
his life work would be commenced. 

When young Taft reached Cincinnati this time he had 
resolved to become a resident of the city. It was his second 
trip to the place. His previous visit was one of inspection 
and comparison. On this former trip, which was really a 
tour of observation, he had looked at many of the promising 
cities of the West, for at that time Cincinnati was well 
" out west." Already the metropolis on the Ohio had begun 
to plume herself as " The Queen City," and she had fairly 
earned this royal title. 

The young Vermont lawyer, after a few days at a hotel, 
settled himself in a boarding house nearly out as far as what 
is now Central avenue. He found the house attractive as 
well as clean and nicely kept, and the occupants were mostly 
congenial folks. The walk to the office or Court House 
would have been a long one for most people but not for Taft. 
He hadn't been a resident of Cincinnati two weeks before he 
had walked all over the city, climbed the hills and enjoyed 
the beautiful views of the river and Kentucky shores from 
the fascinating points that pleased him to the end of his 
residence in the Queen City. And he took frequent walks 
on the Kentucky side after crossing the river by one of the 
many hand-propelled ferries then in operation. He was 
much delighted with Cincinnati and pleased with his selec- 
tion of a home. He found the lawyers cordial and the 
business men earnest and enterprising. He hadn't been lo- 
cated two weeks before he had formed many pleasant ac- 
quaintances among the lawyers and other citizens of the 
place. The big, brainy, affable Vermonter continued to win 



42 ALPHOI^SO TAFT 

on tlie people and to get better acquainted. He became 
especially friendly with Col. Mack, proprietor of the hotel 
where he had made a temporary stay, and the Colonel be- 
came one of his first clients and remained such as long as he 
lived. 

Young Taft found prices considerably higher than in Ver- 
mont, though probably not as high as in the large cities of 
the East. A hind quarter of mutton cost 30 cents and the 
same sum was asked for a turkey. But it was a fine bird 
that commanded these figures. Beef was four cents a pound 
and pork three cents a pound. The landlady explained that 
these high prices for food made it necessary to charge more 
for room and board than formerly so that for board and a 
nice large front room she had to have $3.50 per week. The 
price was high, but young Taft felt that he must live well 
and maintain the dignity of the position he meant to occupy. 
In a book on Cincinnati written by an Englishman, Mr. 
Taft read that this visitor and his wife " were charmed by 
the cordiality of the people they met," and he wrote home 
that he really felt just that way himself. He liked Cin- 
cinnati and Cincinnati liked him. Herein was the secret 
of the good start he got and the ease and success wdth which 
it was maintained. He was impressed with the enterprise 
of the people as well as wnth the way this was acknowledged 
by rival communities. The villages of Covington and New- 
port on the Kentucky side of the river were busy and prom- 
ising places. The active part of the city was the public 
landing, and here great crowds of people assembled Sunday 
afternoons to see the coming and going of the steamers tiiat 
lent life to the scene. Business was extending up town, 
the principal retail stores being then on Pearl street. Mr. 
Taft noticed the trend of business and early made up hia 
mind to profit by it ; the family trait of picking out the best 
spot was with him and he early began to look around. His 
selection of a residence at the corner of Fourth and Vine 
streets was the result of these early observations. The 
people of Cincinnati were especially proud of the rapid 
strides the city was making in business and population. 



HIS NEW HOME 43 

The population was now 46,000, while in 1830 it had been 
24,831. And the increase in business was quite commensu- 
rate with that of the population. Mr. Taft caught the spirit 
of enthusiasm and was not in the city a month before he 
was ready to throw up his hat and cheer for the " Queen 
City of the West." 

On August 29, 1841, he had gone back to Townshend and 
married Fanny Phelps, daughter of Judge Charles Phelps 
of Windham County. This was the culmination of arrange- 
ments formed when he was considering his plans for going 
west. Mrs. Taft was a woman of fine education and from 
a family of educated and cultured people. They were soon 
settled in their home, N. E. corner of Fourth and Vine 
streets, Cincinnati, and now young Taft felt that he was in 
fact as well as in name a Cincinnatian. Mrs. Taft entered . 
enthusiastically into all his efforts for advancing the interests 
of the people with whom they had cast their fortunes. She 
was a most devoted wife — devoted to her husband and family 
as well as to .the people among whom she had settled. To 
him she could say as did Euth : " Whither thou goest, I will 
go; and where thou lodgest I will lodge; Thy people shall 
be my people and thy God my God." They had two chil- 
dren, Charles Phelps Taft and Peter Rawson Taft. Mrs. 
Taft lived till 1852, and during her entire life was an earnest 
worker in every beneficial effort in behalf of the people she 
had come to love. 



CHAPTER IV 

Interests in Education — Old Woodward — A City 
Council Fight — Cincinnati Clean and Beautiful 
— Pig Iron Kelly Tells of a Visit. 

From the beginning of his career as a citizen of Cincin- 
nati Judge Taft took a deep and active interest in the edu- 
cational affairs of the city. His taste and earlier training 
inclined him that way. He was made a trustee of the 
original Woodward fund and later was a proponent of the 
idea of uniting the advanced schools and establishing a 
system of High Schools for the city. He had already drawn 
several laws for the better regulation of the schools, and in 
1851 he drew the law amending the previous ones and was 
instrumental in having it passed by the General Assembly 
of Ohio and accepted by the local bodies interested as follows : 

" Whereas, By an act of the General Assembly of the 
State of Ohio, passed July 11, 1845, the Trustees and Visit- 
ors of Common Schools of the city of Cincinnati, for the 
purpose of better organizing and classifying the schools 
under their supervision, are empowered to establish, with 
the consent of the City Council, such other grades of schools 
than those already established as may to them seem neces- 
sary and expedient ; and, for the furtherance of the above- 
named object, are also empowered, by and with the advice 
and consent of the City Council, to contract with any person 
or persons, whether in their individual, corporate, or fidu- 
ciary capacity, or with any institution in relation to any 
funds that may be at the disposal of such person or persons, 
or such institution, for the education of all such children as 
are entitled to the benefit of common school fund instruction 
in said city, and 

"Whereas, The Board of Trustees of the Woodward College 
and High School and the trustees of the Hughes Fund, have 
under their control large amounts of property and money, 
intended to furnish High School education to the poorer 



46 ALPHONSO TAFT 

portion of youth, which they are desirous to unite with the 
City School Fund under an arrangeauent w^ith the Trustees 
and Visitors of Common Schools and under a general plan 
which will secure High School instruction to all of the youth 
of the city of both sexes : Now, therefore, to accomplish the 
purposes aforesaid, the parties aforesaid, that is to say, the 
Trustees and Visitors of the Common Schools of the first 
part, the Trustees of the Woodward College and High School 
of the second part, and the trustees of the Hughes Fund of 
the third part, have entered into the following contract: 

" It is agreed that, as soon hereafter as practicable, the 
High School for boys and girls, one to be styled the Cin- 
cinnati Woodward High School and the other the Cincinnati 
Hughes High School, shall be established as hereinafter pro- 
vided to be under the direction of a Board of Trustees which 
shall be composed of six members to be elected by the Board 
of Trustees and Visitors of Common Schools from their 
number, the two permanent members of the Woodward 
Board, the three members of said board, elected by the City 
Council and two members of the Hughes Board, elected 
from their number, making thirteen in all, which board shall 
have the usual power of trustees for the management of said 
schools." 

Other sections provided for the appointment of Professors 
and for the general management. 

Judge Taft was made a member of this board and con- 
tinued to give it his active services for more than twenty-five 
years. 

Anything connected with the Cincinnati High Schools in- 
terested Judge Taft deeply. On the occasion of one of our 
expositions, a great parade was arranged for the opening 
day. The Governors of the States were invited and many 
were present. The arrangements provided for putting in 
the carriage with a distinguished guest a local celebrity 
equally as distinguished. In the carriage with Judge Taft 
rode Governor Van Zandt of Ehode Island and a Cincinnati 
newspaper man. After the line of march had been traversed 
the Judge asked the Governor of Ehode Island if there was 



INTERESTS IN EDUCATION 47 

any point around Cincinnati where he would like to visit. 
To the astonishment of the other two the Governor replied, 
" Yes ; I would like to go see the Woodward High School." 
Answering the look of astonishment, Governor Van Zandt 
went on to explain : " I promised my wife to visit the school 
and to see the room where her father taught for so many 
years and where he did the piece of literary work that made 
him famous. I married the daughter of Professor Green, 
for many years an instructor in Woodward. He did much 
fine literary work and many of his poems are of rare merit. 
But he is known to the world as the man who wrote : 

"Old Grimes is dead, the good old man; 
I ne'er shall see him more." 

He wrote the poem in the old Woodward building, and more- 
over Grimes was a Cincinnati man. 

Mr. Taft early became a member of the City Council 
of Cincinnati. He was in all things an active advocate of 
whatever he regarded as of interest to the city. Many and 
hard were the battles he fought; sometimes with his party 
behind him and sometimes fighting his own party as well as 
some special interest that he believed was working against 
the welfare of the city. Perhaps his hardest and most im- 
portant fight was his successful struggle in behalf of an- 
nexation. The city at that time extended only to Liberty 
street. It was well built up for a mile beyond the city line. 
The inhabitants of this section, as w^ell as many city owners 
of property over there, opposed annexation to the city. They 
wanted all the advantages of the city without paying taxes. 
Taft took vigorous ground in favoring annexation and a stiff 
fight occurred. The Whig property owners in his ward noti- 
fied the young councilman that he must desist in his annexa- 
tion efforts, but he did not let up. The same warning was 
given to his associates and the proposition was beaten. His 
party then notified him that he could not have a renomina- 
tion unless he promised not to push his annexation project. 
He wouldn't promise this, but on the contrary promised to 
keep up the fight 'til he won. On this issue his party re- 



48 ALPHONSO TAFT 

fused him a renomination and picked a particularly strong 
man to succeed him and one who would oppose annexation. 
Nothing daunted, Taft announced himself as an independent 
candidate running on the issue of pushing annexation. He 
made a vigorous campaign, speaking in every hall and on 
every corner in his ward. He told the voters that the fight 
against him was the effort of a few rich real estate holders 
who wanted to get out of paying their just share of taxes by 
preventing annexation so that the people owning property 
out there could shove the burden onto the shoulders of those 
whose holdings were entirely in the present city limits. His 
campaign cry was, " Every dollar you save these people you 
have to pay yourselves." He was also urged by his party 
managers to oppose annexation because there were many 
more Democrats than Whigs on the territory it was proposed 
to annex. He argued the best interests of the people should 
prevail against these specious reasons. The voters saw it, 
and he was elected over the candidates of both the political 
parties. 

Returning to his seat in council stronger and more deter- 
mined than ever, he renewed his fight for annexation and 
won easily. His own election, under the circumstances, was 
such an expression of the will of the people that his fellow 
councilmen fell in line with him and the vote in favor of 
annexation was carried by a handsome majority. This suc- 
cess was so marked and so striking and Mr. Taft's influence 
was so increased that he carried to success many other pro- 
jects in the city's interest. Though the leaders had been so 
badly beaten by him both before the people and in council, 
they tendered him the party nomination at the next election 
and he continued to serve the city in this capacity until duty 
called him to other fields of usefulness. 

It was a beautiful and attractive Cincinnati that won the 
heart and confidence of young Taft. It was very clean and 
remarkable for the beauty of its white homes with green 
shutters, its well-cared-for streets and its front yards with 
green grass and beautiful flowers. Even as long as fifteen 
years before on the occasion of the visit of Lafayette to 



INTEKESTS IN EDUCATION 49 

America, one of the committee traveling with our distin- 
guished guest spoke of Cincinnati as '' one of the most beau- 
tiful places I ever looked upon." 

Hon. Wm. D. Kelly of Pennsylvania, known to his friends 
and opponents as Pig Iron Kelly, made a trip to Cincinnati 
in 1854 and was the guest of his friend, Alphonso Taft. 
He contemplated going there to settle and practice law. He 
concluded, however, to remain in Pennsylvania where he 
became a highly successful politician and lawyer. 

Many years afterwards when the Cincinnati Chamber of 
Commerce was holding its sessions in Smith and Nixon's 
Hall, Pig Iron Kelly made another visit to Cincinnati and 
again was the guest of his friend Taft. In a most inter- 
esting address to the members of the Chamber of Commerce, 
he described his visit of 33 years before and the Cincinnati 
of that day as he found it. Said the Pennsylvania states- 
man : *' Cincinnati was one of the cleanest, prettiest, and 
most attractive cities I had ever visited. With its many 
white houses with green shutters, its yard and flower beds 
along Fourth street from Sycamore to Plum, it was most 
impressive in its freshness and freedom from soot and dirt. 
Coal had not come into use, and long rows of cord-wood 
found place on the public landing. Householder^ bought 
this wood and men each with saw and saw buck on their 
shoulders looking for the job were on hand to saw the wood 
as soon as it was delivered. In families with boys to do the 
chores, they sawed the wood. One boy sawed till he had 
done his part when he gladly ' passed the buck ' to the next 
boy in turn." And he went on: "My friend, Alphonso 
Taft, the prosperous young lawyer, lured by one of these 
attractive residences, located on the north side of Fourth 
street, at the corner of Vine street, where a great clothing 
store now stands with the outbuildings extending back north 
on Vine street where you now see a news store and a tobacco 
store facing on Vine street." 

All these changes had come so gradually to the people of 
Cincinnati that even the older ones had not realized them. 
But they made a striking impression on the visiting states- 



50 ALPHONSO TAFT 

man who had not seen them since the days of his young 
manhood. 

Hon. Mr. Kelly's speech was a delightful affair from any 
standpoint. It was peppered with jolly expressions having 
little to do with commerce but much with human interests. 
The use of coffee was somewhat on the public mind just then, 
and in his speech the Pennsylvania statesman said : " I 
feel sorry for one who does not begin the day with a cup of 
coffee. For myself I never feel that ' I can bid farewell to 
every fear and face a frowning world ' till IVe had my cup 
of coffee." As he stepped down from the platform Judge 
Taft taking him by the arm observed, " Come, Kelly, we'll 
go have that cup of coffee. I'm not a coffee drinker myself 
and not much a believer in it, but you seem to have done 
very well by the aid of it, or in spite of it," and the two 
statesmen walked out to take a carriage to Judge Taft'a 
residence, not now on Fourth and Vine streets. 



CHAPTEK V 

House of Refuge — The Children's Love of Judge Taft 
— His Visits — Some Incidents 

Mr. Taft always took the greatest interest in the welfare 
of children and this continued until the end of his life. Soon 
after he had got well settled in Cincinnati, as a useful and 
influential man, he saw that something ought to be done for 
the better care of the children classed as criminals. So 
classing them tended naturally to make them criminals. 
Children were sent to the County Jail where they were 
brought under the contaminating influence of the most de- 
praved of criminals. New York City and Philadelphia had 
established reformatory institutions where children charged 
with petty offenses could be sent with the idea of reclaiming 
and making good citizens of them. Mr. Taft looked fully 
into the workings of these institutions and was so impressed 
with their beneficent work that he determined that Cincin- 
nati should have such a provision for her own unfortunate 
children. 

In this determination, as in all good works, he had the 
earnest support and untiring aid of Mrs. Taft and a number 
of the friends she had made since coming to the city. Among 
the friends who earnestly sympathized with her in her good 
works was Mrs. Bullock. The two were different in experi- 
ence and previous environment, as different as it was pos- 
sible for two such friends to be. But they were one in a 
love of humanity and in a desire to make this a brighter 
and better world. Mrs. Bullock was familiar with the pov- 
erty, crime and cruelties of city life while Mrs. Taft pre- 
viously knew nothing of this somber side of human existence. 
In the surroundings of her Vermont home there was no pov- 
erty and little crime, so little that it was the conspicuous 
exception. Every one had work, or could have it, and every 
one had enough to eat and something to wear. Used to 
these conditions, the poverty of city life of that day struck 



52 ALPHONSO TAFT 

her with horror. These were not days of organized charities 
and of societies for the relief of the poor. Every man and 
woman of means and humane instincts was his or her own 
uplifter of the unfortunate. Mrs. Taft found a constant 
demand on her charities. A familiarity with these condi- 
tions made her an active and earnest aid in the work of 
establishing a House of Refuge, and though she did not live 
to see its greatest usefulness in after years she did live to 
see its two first years of active and useful operations. And 
in those two years the hopes of good results were more than 
vindicated. She visited the institution almost weekly and 
became personally familiar with many of the problems which 
its collection of children presented. In the address at the 
opening of the House of Refuge delivered in the chapel 
October 7, 1850, Judge Taft outlined the intent and purposes 
of the institution as shown in this extract: 

" The City has, at vast expense, provided for her people 
schools with spacious houses, efficient and faithful instiiic- 
tors, and the inducements to the acquisition of useful knowl- 
edge. Whatsoever parent desires for his children educa- 
tion in the useful branches of learning and whatsoever child 
desires instructions, whether he be poor or rich, can find it 
in Cincinnati, without money and without price. 

" Such has been, and now is, the enlightened policy of 
our city in behalf of the sick, the fatherless and the poor. 
For these and like institutions her citizens have ever been 
willing to bear the heavy burdens of taxation. As much as 
other cities of our country are distinguished for the excel- 
lence of their free schools, and as much as they may excel 
Cincinnati in wealth and power, in her provisions for popu- 
lar education, she may bear an honorable comparison with 
the best. 

" The true character of these institutions is not impaired 
by the fact that they are also founded upon the soundest 
public policy. The prevention of crime is undoubtedly an 
important and leading consideration in the mind of the 
political economist, for the establishment of common schools ; 
and in that one consideration he finds ample justification 



HOUSE OF REFUGE 53 

for the universal contribution which properly is compelled 
by law to make to this purpose, in the form of taxes. But 
the municipal government in the established support of 
schools also stands forth as an enlightened benefactor pro- 
viding wholesome intellectual food for all, and inviting all, 
freely to come and partake of her abundance. 

" Her citizens point with just pride to their numerous and 
appropriate edifices devoted to the education and discipline 
of the children of all the people. May they long be proud 
of these evidences of their liberality and intelligence, and 
of their sons and her daughters who are educated in them. 

" But this noble system is not complete while there are 
found children who, whether by the neglect of their parents 
and guardians or by their own perversity, are deprived of 
its advantage. As to this large class of children, our com- 
mon schools have utterly failed to accomplish any valuable 
purpose. They are not formed to restore the lost character 
of those who are already depraved. 

" Their province is to instruct and improve those whose 
characters are adapted to instruction and improvement, not 
to reform those whose evil propensities have become pre- 
dominant, and cannot be restrained by their parents and 
friends. 

" Hitherto, our municipal government has, by rearing her 
system of schools, performed the part of a bountiful bene- 
factor. Her language has been, ' Whosoever will, let him 
come ' and receive instructions. But now, by adding to 
that system this school of Reform, she assumes the language 
of parental authority and commands even the unwilling to 
accept her liberality. Heretofore the government has pro- 
ceeded upon the practical assumption that, where she has 
opened her schools and made them free to all, her duty has 
been performed ; and that they who refuse instruction must 
go their way, though it lead to perdition. For the govern- 
ment to constrain a child of freedom, against his will, to do 
what all know to be right and best for himself, as well as 
the public, has been thought an unwarrantable abridgement 
of youthful, republican liberty. 



54 ALPHONSO TAFT 

" Our object, in the establishment of this institution, is to 
follow the youth who has broken away from the usual re- 
straints of society and, instead of leaving him to an unre- 
strained course of crime, or consigning him to the company 
of those who are degraded beyond hope of reform, to con- 
strain him to forsake his depraved habits, and be taught that 
which is useful and good. 

" Here let us pause for a moment to inquire into the causes 
which are to furnish inmates for this institution. These 
children are unfortunate rather than criminal. Thousands 
of boys and girls, now well behaved and lovely, would have 
been no better than these if placed in the world under the 
same influence as they. Their sins are not the product of 
nature, worse than that of the majority of human beings, 
but of those cruel circumstances which it is the object of the 
institution we have now founded to ameliorate and to change. 

" A fruitful source of delinquency in children is the 
neglect of parents. It is not necessary that I should at- 
tempt to sketch the progressive history of these unfortunate 
youths who, through the want of advice, and attention of 
parents, have, by degrees, departed from the path of virtue 
and integrity, and become fit subjects of reformatory disci- 
pline. The momentary relief which hunger finds by an act 
of petty theft is not the subject of reflection to the child 
who has no provident parent on whom to rely against want. 
This, though wrong, is not deliberate crime. The law may, 
indeed, regard it as identical with the theft of the man of 
matured intellect and heart, but in the eye of natural reason 
and of justice it is totally difl'erent. 

" Another fruitful source of ruin to the rising generation 
is the want of family government. This is a characteristic 
of our time and country. Hence comes the profligacy of 
the youthful expectants of patrimonial estates. Hence have 
sprung the numerous and well-known race of ' third genera- 
tion men,' who having wasted the wealth of their grandsires 
with riotous living, have afterwards yielded to criminal 
temptations. If there were not parents who are too careless 
of the interests of their own offspring to encourage them in 



HOUSE OF REFUGE 55 

the improvements of the privileges so freely provided for 
all, and if there were not other parents who, though suffi- 
ciently anxious for the welfare of their children, are wholly 
destitute of parental authority, few indeed would become 
wayward, worthless and criminal. Some, fearing lest by 
necessary severity the spirit of their children be broken 
down, have suffered them to go unrestrained until the public 
authorities have been compelled to restrain them. 

" While the ambitious fathers and mothers of this en- 
lightened age are felicitating themselves and their friends 
upon the discovery of new and easy methods of controlling 
their hopeful offspring, it often happens that these pre- 
cocious youths, having learned to put on the air of command, 
like the fabled Phaeton, have assumed the reins, and are 
dashing down the broad road to ruin. The interest of 
parent and child alike demand that filial obedience shall 
be maintained. The question: by what means it is to be 
done, is not half so important as the great question : whether 
it is done at all. The wise man hath said, ' Chasten thy son 
while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.' 
Whether the parent govern in the way recommended by King 
Solomon, or by smiles and gifts and the other art8 of parental 
kindness, govern he must, if he would not ruin his child. 
Want of family government, therefore, is one source of the 
evils which this house is designed to remedy. 

" Of sucli are they who are to find a house and a school 
in this House of Eefuge. Hitherto, our city has made no 
other provision for these unfortunate children than the com- 
mon schools and the common jail. In the former, their 
influence has contaminated others, and has done much to 
injure the otherwise excellent character of our free schools. 
In the latter, their own ruin has been completed by asso- 
ciating with the worst of criminals. The consequence has 
been that in the midst of our city has been sustained at 
public cost an expensive institution, where these youthful 
delinquents who, from different causes, have been drawn 
away from the advantages of schools and churches, are taught 
the very science and mysteries of crime, from its lowest to 



56 ALPHONSO TAFT 

its highest branches, an institution whose professors are the 
most expert housebreakers and thieves, whose lectures con- 
sist of glowing tales of successful villainy ; and where crime, 
with all its fascinations, is ingeniously expounded to the 
young and curious learners. They become charmed with 
the heroism of daring and undetected felonies, and when 
discharged, whether it be in twenty days, or in six months, 
go forth with bolder and more lawless designs than they had 
ever before conceived. Such an institution is the County 
Jail to the hapless youth who, whether guilty or innocent of 
offenses, great or small, are once confined in it. 

" Aware of the degrading influence of this county institu- 
tion, courts have spared many children guilty of minor of- 
fences. It has been judged better to defer the mischievous 
consequences of permitting them to go at large, than to 
consign them to certain infamy by confinement with old and 
irreclaimable rogues." 

For many years Judge Taft could be seen every Sunday 
afternoon in his " one-horse shay " driving to the House of 
Refuge, where he met and talked with the children. Little 
faces clustered about the windows and little feet pattered 
across the green as he drove up. His visit was always an 
event of interest and pleasure, as w^ell as of profit to the 
little folks. No father could have a more cordial welcome 
from his own family than the Judge always received. 

And he talked with them with such loving interest and 
sympathy that each one felt that the discussion was a pei^ 
sonal appeal. Sometimes he stood on the rostrum and ad- 
dressed them and sometimes took a seat with his hearers 
gathered around him. Always his talks were on topics so 
simple that the youngest could comprehend. 

The man who gives information contained in this chapter 
is one of Cincinnati's useful and respected citizens. " How 
did you know all this," he was asked. Hesitating a moment, 
he said, " I was a House of Refuge boy and I stood near 
Judge Taft as he made many of his talks, and much that he 
said so impressed me that its effects as well as its memory 
have gone with me through life." 



HOUSE OF KEFUGE 57 

This man illustrated : " One day as the Judge was hitch- 
ing his horse, two boys were engaged in loud conversation, 
were quarreling, but this ceased when they saw the Judge. 
That day he took for his subject, ' Speak Low,' and he went 
on to tell of the importance of governing one's temper and 
how it could best be done by speaking low. The person that 
gives himself the habit of speaking low always has a big 
advantage. If one party to a misunderstanding speaks low, 
the other is likely to do so as well, and what might have been 
a quarrel is merely an exchange of views." On one occa- 
sion, speaking to an unusually bright boy, the Judge asked, 
" Perry, what are you going to be when you grow up ? " "I 
want to be a big strong man like you," replied the boy. 
" Well, Perry, being big has its disadvantages, but if you 
grow up to be big and strong, what are you going to do ? " 
" Lick Tom Tarbutton and the preacher," promptly replied 
Perry. 

After the laugh had died away. Perry was exhorted on 
the wickedness of indulging in such contemplations, but 
Perry's defense was, " They got me sent here." The worthy 
citizen who told this and much more, but whose name for 
obvious reasons cannot be mentioned, says : " You would be 
astonished to learn how many House of Refuge boys have 
turned out to be useful citizens. And they kept up their 
acquaintance with Judge Taft and went to him for advice 
as long as they and he lived." 

Asked how he came to be sent to the Refuge, he replied, 
" Just for a foolish boy's pranks. There was a protracted 
meeting at Wesley Chapel and I, with some other boys, 
unhitched the traces and otherwise disarranged harness of 
their vehicles while the worshippers were inside. The sec- 
ond offense of the same kind got us sent up. As we were 
without homes, it probably was a good thing for us." His 
testimony was all in favor of the good influence and excel- 
lent management of " The House of Refuge." " A wonder- 
ful power for good it is and always has been," said this 
former inmate, and he added, " It is all this today." 



CHAPTER VI 

An Addeess that Attracted Great Attention at the 
Time and Today Seems Almost Prophetic — The 
Eailroads of Cincinnati. 

Soon after becoming identified with Cincinnati, Judge 
Taft became deeply interested in the development of the 
railroads for the benefit of the city, and was an earnest 
and successful advocate of the extension of these powerful 
activities of trade. He took hold of each practical railroad 
suggestion and was earnest in his efforts to successfully 
develop it. He was for many years a director in the Little 
Miami Railroad, representing as such the interests of the 
city, which was a stockholder in the road. In 1850 he 
delivered to the Mercantile Library Association a lecture 
entitled ''Cincinnati and Her Eailroads," in which he demon- 
strated the great importance to the city of having as many 
railroads as possible radiating from it as a center in every 
direction. The prophecies of that lecture have all been 
fulfilled. He was one of the prominent incorporators of 
the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, and acted as its counsel 
for many years. He was a member of the first board of 
directors of the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad, and spent 
much time and labor in carrying through that enterprise in 
spite of many obstacles. 

" The Railroads of Cincinnati " was an address so pro- 
phetic in its suggestions and so characteristic of the man 
in the way it sums up the conditions of that time ; and withal 
clothed in such beautiful and forceful English that it is 
here given in full. Nothing can better convey a correct 
impression of the foresight of Judge Taft or give a clearer 
understanding of his deep interest in this subject, or so well 
demonstrate the great services he rendered Cincinnati in this 
one line of his activities than a reading of this beautiful and 
prophetic address. 



60 ALPHONSO TAFT 

Gentlemen of the Association : 

In casting about for a subject, important alike to the merchant, 
mechanic, the professional, and the laboring man, I have found none 
which, in my opinion, demands more profound attention from the pres- 
ent generation of the citizens of Cincinnati than the true policy to be 
pursued by our city on the subject of Railroads. Inland cities, like Cin- 
cinnati, are peculiarly sensible to every change in the modes of travel 
and transportation. 

The sites for cities have not always been selected for the same rea- 
sons. Mount Moriah and Mount Sion were chosen as the site of Jeru- 
salem because their precipitous sides could be easily fortified. Petra 
was seated in the top of Mount Seir, carved deep in the rock, to guard 
against the attacks of enemies, in a barbarous age. And Rome herself 
sat down upon her seven hills to be secure from invasion. 

But the modern, as well as the most of the ancient, cities have been 
the result, not of military defenses, nor of warlike ambition, but of 
commercial intercourse. Wherever one country, or a section of a country, 
can most conveniently come and exchange its commodities, for the 
money, or the commodities of other countries, or other sections of the 
same country, there is a location for a city. The more extensive and 
populous the regions are which may be thus accommodated, the more 
eligible will the location be. Commerce, therefore, whether foreign or 
domestic, has generally designated the ground whereon great cities have 
risen. 

But commerce depends on artificial, as well as on natural, causes. No 
mere location can secure the traffic which is essential to the growth of 
an inland city. Babylon, and the hundred-gated Thebes, each possessed 
important natural advantages, and was in the commercial center of its 
own age and country. The golden tides of commerce continued to flow 
in upon them, till they came to regard their growth as the course of 
nature; superior to human agencies, and not subject to any ebb. They 
never doubted that their power and their glory would be immortal. Yet 
with their natural advantages, they did not maintain their position. 

As artificial causes had chiefly served to build them up, so artificial 
causes, changing the course of trade and of travel, reduced them again 
to poverty and solitude. 

Thousands of the noblest sites for cities are desolate, or unknown, 
for the simple reason that other and inferior locations have been reared 
and sustained by superior improvements. 

London and Paris have the advantage of location. London was al- 
ways on the Thames, at the head of navigation; and has always been 
in the heart of commerce by her natural position. But even London has 
been recently enriched by the tributaries of modern improvement. If 
twenty new rivers, each equal to the Thames, had opened their several 
channels from different points of the compass, and had all passed by 



THE RAILROADS OF CINCINNATI 63 

London to the sea, they could not have so multiplied the facilities for 
trade and commerce to that metropolis as have the Railroads which have 
put her in hourly communication with almost all parts of the kingdom. 
These are the works of men 's hands. But their power and influence have 
not been disregarded even by London. Two millions of people, however, 
congregated on the banks of the Thames in the very eye of the nation, 
and the world, owning half the wealth of the kingdom, were in no great 
peril from any changes in the modes of travel and conveyances. In our 
own country, Boston may be considered similarly situated, in relation 
to New England; and New York, in relation to the Middle States. The 
spacious harbor of New York is nowhere else, but in the bay of Man- 
hattan, where all the commerce of the Atlantic can safely ride, and 
where the products of a vast inland country are compelled to seek a 
market. Boston, too, has her renowned harbor, second only to that of 
New York, from which she is so far remote as to be left the unrivaled 
emporium of New England. 

Cincinnati has no such monopoly of natural advantages. She stands 
upon the banks of a noble river. But those banks are not like the coast 
of the Atlantic, accessible to commerce by a few widely separated har- 
bors only. The banks of the Ohio form one continuous harbor, every- 
where safe from the winds and the waves, and everyivhere welcoming 
the approach of vessels and of business. 

They who founded Cincinnati did not contemplate the changes which 
were to be wrought in the courses of travel and trade by internal im- 
provements, nor their influence upon the destinies of cities. Their selec- 
tion, however, was fortunate, and the present generation have only to 
improve her natural advantages, and Cincinnati may gain far more than 
she can lose by the locomotive; which, leaving the liquid element, has 
taken to the land, and now raises and depresses towns and cities at its 
pleasure. 

Cincinnati owed her birth, as a mart of business, to the Ohio. Her 
prosperity has ebbed and flowed with the rising and the falling of the 
river. Like Egypt, she was bound to ascribe her wealth to her river. 
If the Ohio has not, like the Nile, enriched, by its annual overflow, the 
country upon its banks, it has borne away upon its bosom the vast 
products of a soil which needed not the overflowing of waters to enrich 
it, to the most eligible markets, and brought back the commodities for 
which those products were exchanged. 

But although the city, in its origin, was the product of the river, it is 
indebted to other causes for its growth. They who controlled the desti- 
nies of Cincinnati foresaw that access to foreign ports through the Ohio 
and the Mississippi would be vain without easy communication with the 
interior. Neither individual enterprise, nor highway taxes, could make 
the turnpike roads, which were essential to the business of the city. 
Turnpike companies were organized under legislature charters, associating 
the public spirited people of the city with a kindred class of citizens in 



64 ALPHONSO TAFT 

the country, which, after struggles and sacrifices, accomplish the work. 
The McAdam turnpike roads were a great advance on the primitive, 
miry clay which preceded them. 

But the demands of commerce were not yet satisfied. Canals had 
been found useful elsewhere, and the State Legislature was induced to 
adopt them here. The Miami Canal was a result of this liberal policy 
on the part of the State Government. This, with the extension of the 
Maumee, was our share of the system of the canal improvements, com- 
menced by the State about the year 1852, of which the Ohio Canal 
formed a leading part; for all of which we should be none the less 
thankful that the extension came late and was grudgingly bestowed. 

It came at last, complete, and with it came an increase of traffic, and 
a corresponding advance in the value of property in the city and the 
country. 

In the meantime it was discovered by those who regarded the pros- 
perity of Cincinnati, that it was important to secure an open and abun- 
dant entrance to our market for the products and the people of Indiana. 
Hence, the city made an effort, greater than she had ever made for any 
other single improvement, when she voted four hundred thousand dollars 
for the construction of the Cincinnati and White Water Canal; and 
again, when more recently she loaned the Canal Company the further 
sum of thirty thousand dollars. 

This Canal has been unfortunate. Accidents have befallen it, al- 
though unforeseen. Unusual floods have come and swept away its em- 
bankments; one disappointment has succeeded another until heavy debt 
has weighed down its prospects. 

The difficulties of construction and the cost were far greater than had 
been anticipated; and the White Water Valley Canal, in Indiana, upon 
which it depended for success, has been much out of repair, and has 
disappointed the hopes of the city from that source. 

But even this work has not been without its benefits. It has justified 
the expectation of the city, so far as the taking the trade of the White 
Water Valley Canal from Lawrenceburg was concerned, and has proved 
what, to reflecting minds, needed no proof, though sometimes denied, 
that Cincinnati had nothing to fear from the competition of Lawrence- 
burg, or any other neighboring town, when the communication is open 
and good, between such place and the city. 

The Canal has probably done something also toward elevating the 
prices of real estate in that part of the city where it delivers its pro- 
duce and receives its merchandise; and has thus enlarged, to some ex- 
tent, the amount of taxable property. But as a stock it is at present 
worthless; and while used as a Canal, it cannot be otherAvise. 

Its present indebtedness and the cost of repairs render it improbable 
that, as a Canal, it can ever yield a profit to its stockholders. 

We have thus glanced at the improvements which the city has aided 
to construct, and which have in turn built up Cincinnati. They who 



THE RAILROADS OF CINCINNATI 65 

have done so much to make Turnpikes and Canals, for the good of the 
city and the country, will not be found caviling at reasonable plans for 
Railroad Improvements. What Cincinnati would have been without 
Turnpikes and Canals, at a time when Railroads were untried, and al- 
most unknown among our people, cannot well be imagined; but that 
her course would have been tame and tardy, compared with her hitherto 
brilliant career, is certain. 

Fourteen years ago, a portion of the citizens of Cincinnati began to 
be aroused to the importance of Railroads. Railroads had then been in 
operation in England, and in some parts of our own country, and their 
superiority over all other modes of travel and transportation was not 
unknown to the reading part of the community. The Legislature of 
Ohio granted a charter to the Little Miami Railroad Company in the 
year of 1836. The State afterwards subscribed one hundred and twenty- 
one thousand dollars to the capital stock of the Company; and the city, 
in her corporate capacity, invested two hundred thousand dollars in the 
same way; and at a subsequent period loaned to the Company the addi- 
tional sum of one hundred thousand dollars; and the counties along the 
line took seventy-five thousand dollars. 

The Little Miami was the pioneer of Western Railroads. As is usual 
in such cases, there were not wanting a host of objectors and carpers 
to oppose and scoff at the enterprise. Capitalists were, in general, not 
the first to discover its importance. There were even those whose estates 
have since been greatly enhanced by the Railroad, who were neither 
willing to subscribe themselves, nor to suffer the city to subscribe to its 
stock. 

It is not wonderful that severe remarks should be sometimes made 
respecting those large landholders who refuse to aid in carrying forward 
necessary public improvements. It is felt to be unequal and unjust that 
they who have but little to be benefited should incur the risk and the bur- 
den of constructing works which, however they may affect the stockhold- 
ers, must inevitably enrich the large owners of real estate. 

The man who stands aloof from those public improvements, made for 
the common benefit of all, but the advantages of which he is able to 
monopolize by reason of his possessions, may be considered a law- 
abiding citizen, but the world cannot regard him as either generous or 
just. It will not avail him to plead that he compels nobody to subscribe 
to an enterprise which makes him rich without his aid. However, such 
a cold and formal plea might be supposed to do in the forum of that 
goddess who professes to judge blindfold, it must be overruled by an 
enlightened public opinion; and he that makes it must be convicted of 
being a ' ' hard man, reaping where he has not sown, and gathering where 
he has not strewed." 

If the Little Miami Railroad had waited for private capital to sub- 
scribe the stdck, the work would not have been begun. Wealth is cau- 
tious. It does not trust to theory. It demands experience. It will not 



66 ALPHONSO TAFT 

believe what it has not itself seen. It requires that experiments be 
tried by others and at the risk of others. But when it has been con- 
vinced that a particular species of investments has proved good, it will 
often adhere to it, even after it ha's become doubtful. It goes by ex- 
perience rather than by the deductions of reason. Hence the necessity 
that the public should bear a leading part in the first introduction of 
improvements, requiring such vast sums of money to carry them through. 
The burden and the risk, as well as the benefits, can thus be equalized. 
But when the Kailroad investments in the Western World shall have 
proved themselves profitable, and shall have experience on their side, 
private capital will probably not be wanting. 

The capital stock of the Little Miami Kailroad was chiefly subscribed 
by public corporations. The State, the City, and the Counties along the 
line, took four hundred thousand dollars in stock, and the city loaned 
one hundred thousand dollars beside; while the utmost that was received 
in individual subscriptions, before the road was finished and in success- 
ful operation, was one hundred and thirty-two thousand dollars. Long 
and severe was the struggle by which this road was accomplished. It 
was chartered in 1836. It was finished in 1846. Ten years of hope 
deferred. Fourteen years have now elapsed since this road was com- 
menced, and yet Cincinnati has no other Eailway track on which to wel- 
come customers to her market. 

In the meantime New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and Mary- 
land, to say nothing of other Eastern States, have been branching their 
Railroads in all directions, and six thousand miles are at this time com- 
pleted and in full operation in the United States and two hundred mil- 
lions of capital have been invested in them. 

If Cincinnati should never receive a dividend upon her stock she 
would have cause to rejoice in the Little Miami Railroad. The in- 
creased value of her taxable property pays her, in taxes, far more than 
the interest upon the a^mount invested. Such has been the result of the 
first investment made in the Railroad stock by the city of Cincinnati. 
There are none now to gainsay the wisdom of this investment. It will 
ever be an honor to the liberality and foresight of the city, as well as a 
most productive source of pecuniary profit to her treasury. 

The Railroad thoroughfare from the Ohio to the Lake is thus secured 
to Cincinnati, and we are in the present enjoyment of its advantages. 
No rival can take this from us. 

The surveys of engineers have told us what a general knowledge of 
the surface of the country must have taught all who have reflected on 
the subject, without reference to the calculations of science, that there 
are but three natural Railroad passes to and from the city of Cincinnati. 
One is along the bank of the river towards the East, which has been 
already occupied. Another is the valley of Mill Creek, toward the 
North. And the third is along the bank of the Ohio, towards the West. 

Some have supposed that engineers could find a natural grade suitable 



THE RAILKOADS OF CINCINIsTATI 67 

for a Railroad toward the West or Northwest, between the valley of 
Mill Creek and the river route. But they could not have reflected upon 
the fact that the general level of the country between the city and the 
great Miami is four hundred feet above the level of the city, while the 
valley of the great Miami, between Hamilton and the Ohio, is not 
twenty feet higher than the city; and the distance between the Mill 
Creek Valley and that of the Miami is too short to allow of any desir- 
able grade for a Railroad, ascending to that general level of the country 
and descending again to that of the Miami. 

In the year 1849 was granted the present charter of the Cincinnati, 
Hamilton and Dayton Railroad Company, which is now taking possession 
of the valley of Mill Creek, the second of the three natural avenues to 
and from our city. Like its predecessor, its course lies towards the 
north. Its termini are Cincinnati and Dayton, at the latter of which 
places it is to connect with the Mad River Railroad, and through that 
with the Lake. Enterprising and public-spirited citizens have addressed 
themselves to the work, and already do we anticipate its speedy com- 
pletion. 

Although the interests of the two routes of Railroads will be to some 
extent rival, the prospects of both are sufficiently flattering. 

The Little and the Great Miami rivers have ever been associated in 
the minds of Western men, with one another. They have also been asso- 
ciated with the prosperity of the Queen City. No lover of the great 
interests of Cincinnati can fail to encourage both of these noble enter- 
prises. 

Who of us is not interested to have Railroad communication opened 
to and through the rich farms of the Great Miami, as well as to the 
thrifty and already wealthy city of Dayton? It will add another pillar 
to our prosperity as a city, another bond of union with the country 
toward the North. The junction of this route at Dayton with the Mad 
River line from Sandusky, will present to travelers an option between 
two routes of nearly equal distance between Cincinnati and the Lake. 

No Cincinnatian can be indifferent to the branch from Xenia to 
Columbus, in which the Little Miami Railroad Company have borne a 
conspicuous and necessary part, by the construction of one-fourth of the 
whole work. By the completion of this branch, an event which is now 
at hand, we are brought within five hours of the capital of the State. 

Nor are we less interested in the work now rapidly advancing from 
Cleveland to Columbus, which will, within a twelvemonth, furnish an- 
other important choice of routes from the river to the Lake, both ter- 
minating at Cincinnati. The traveler can then choose whether he will 
pass by Dayton or Xenia to Springfield, whether he will pass by Spring- 
field or Columbus to the Lake, whether he will reach the lake at San- 
dusky or at Cleveland — a three-fold cord to bind us to the interior and 
to the north part of our State. 

It is to be observed that as the Little Miami has been the pioneer, 



68 ALPHONSO TAFT 

so it has been the parent of other roads. The branch to Columbus waa 
the offspring of the Little Miami, and so too is that from Columbus to 
Cleveland. When the one or the other would have been constructed, if 
there had been no road from Cincinnati to Xenia, no man can safely 
say. Even that to Hamilton and Dayton may justly be considered as 
taking its rise from the success of the Little Miami. 

As the branch from Xenia to Columbus has sprung from the Little 
Miami, so may we expect that, in due time, one or more branches from 
the Cincinnati and Dayton line will extend North and West to Indian- 
apolis, so that the North, the Northeast and the Northwest will become 
indissolubly connected with us by Railroad facilities. Such are the 
fruits we may speedily anticipate from the seed which was sown by the 
city when she took stock in the Little Miami Railroad. The Dayton 
road asks no aid from the city. Private capital and private enterprise 
have proved equal to the task. 

But w^e ought not to omit in this place to mention another important 
branch of the Little Miami, now in contemplation, in the direction of 
Hillsborough and Chillicothe. These branches of the original pioneer 
road will soon become the main trunks of other routes not less important 
to the city than the parent road itself. For instance, the Columbus 
branch will soon, by the extension to Cleveland, become a part of the 
main road from that place to Cincinnati. How the Hillsborough and 
Chillicothe branch will hereafter become a part of a still more important 
route I will soon consider. 

It appears, therefore, that of the three natural passes to and from 
this beautiful amphitheatre of Cincinnati, two have already been be- 
spoken for the locomotive. One only remains to be appropriated to 
Railroad purposes. 

Here let us imitate the prudent mariner, and pause to take the lati- 
tude and longitude of Cincinnati. Of all the sciences none is so im- 
portant to the people of the Queen City just at the present time as 
geography. Whoever would wisely counsel the city on the great subject 
of international improvements has, first of all, to know our true position 
on the map of the Union. I, therefore, commend to every good citizen, 
whose happiness is identified with the growth and importance of the 
city, the careful study of our geographical advantages. 

A line drawn directly west from Baltimore three thousand five hun- 
dred miles to San Francisco, touching Cumberland, Parkersburg, Mari- 
etta, Chillicothe, Hillsborough, Vincennes, and St. Louis, nowhere varies 
a degree and a half from 39° North, the latitude of Cincinnati. 

The northern boundary of the United States, as fixed by the late 
treaties with Great Britain, is 49° North, varying, however, somewhat 
in its course towards the East. The latitude of 29° North strikes the 
northern part of the Gulf of Mexico, and forms about an average of the 
latitude of the southern boundary of the United States, since the late 
treaty with Mexico. 



THE EAILROADS OF CINCINNATI 69 

The latitude of Cincinnati divides equally this vast territory, leaving 
ten degrees on the North and ten degrees on the South. It lies in the 
best part of the temperate zone, with a moderate climate. 

If the sublime plan of a railway from the Atlantic to the Pacific 
shall ever be carried into execution, what line of latitude can present so 
many and so manifest advantages as this? It will unite the two rival 
cities of the valley of the West. It will join the noblest harbor of the 
Pacific with Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston — the great 
emporiums of the Atlantic. It will intersect the commerce of the Mis- 
sissippi and St. Louis, and will touch that of the Ohio at Cincinnati. 
It will unite the mines of the Sacramento with the golden harvests of 
the Mississippi valley. It will be direct ; and yet will pass through all 
the important commercial cities of the Union, except New Orleans. For 
it will be seen by a glance at the map that Philadelphia, New York and 
Boston are on the same line, extended, with but a small deviation. 

I will not descant upon the commanding position of such a thorough- 
fare in its relation to the commerce of the world, as that commerce will 
pass around the globe to and from China and Japan, making the nations 
of Europe, as well as Asia, tributary to our prosperity. 

On the other hand, we find by the map that the curve in the Eastern 
and Southern coasts of the United States is such that the most im- 
portant of the Atlantic ports and cities at the North and at the South 
are nearly equidistant from Cincinnati. Charleston and Savannah are 
nearly in one circumference with New York and Philadelphia around 
Cincinnati as a center. If we place one foot of the dividers upon Cin- 
cinnati on the map of the United States and the other on Boston, and 
sweep around to the Gulf and the Mississippi, the line will pass near to 
New Orleans. 

Cincinnati cannot regard with indiiference the fact that some of the 
Southern cities are now pushing their improvements resolutely toward 
the Ohio. Charleston and Savannah have already advanced their rail- 
ways. North and West, five hundred miles across the mountains to the 
Tennessee river at Chattanooga, on their way to Knoxville and to Nash- 
ville; to which latter place the whole line is already under contract 
and in the process of construction. Nashville and Knoxville are each 
about the same distance from Cincinnati, with Cleveland, Ohio. Be- 
tween Knoxville and Nashville and Cincinnati lie the city of Lexington 
and the finest portion of Kentucky, with an agricultural region sur- 
passed by no country in the world. 

But of all the Atlantic ports Baltimore is the nearest to us. The 
Baltimore and Ohio Eailroad is steadily approaching us through the 
difficult passes of the Alleghanies; and in the course of the next two 
and a half years it will have reached the Ohio at a point not far from 
two hundred miles distant from us; where a direct route to Cincinnati, 
passing through Marietta, Chillicothe, Hillsborough and a rich agricul- 
tural country will be entirely practicable. 



70 ALPHONSO TAFT 

From the indications of popular feeling on the subject, we may hope 
that a road running East from Cincinnati, through Hillsborough and 
Chillicothe, will soon be in progress and will be ready at the Ohio to 
greet the arrival of the first locomotive from Baltimore. 

It is no longer doubted that much the largest part of the national 
wealth and population of the United States will soon be found between 
the Alleghanies and the Rocky Mountains. In this North American 
Valley there can be sustained a population greater than the three hun- 
dred millions of China. The Atlantic States cannot long compete with 
the States of this valley. Their cities may compete with our cities. But 
will not even that competition be vain when the tide of population, 
wealth and power, rolling westward, shall have concentrated the do- 
mestic commerce and manufactures of this valley at one or more central 
points. Let them boast of their foreign commerce. It is not to be 
doubted that the domestic commerce of this country exceeds the foreign 
in a ratio of more than ten to one. Why, then, can it not build up 
greater cities? 

A great navigable river, like the Ohio or the Mississippi, is a better 
foundation for the prosperity of their emporiums than the seaboard. 
Cities, both great and small, derive the mass of their wealth, directly 
or indirectly, from the country. The city, which is located on the river, 
is surrounded by the country; while one entire half of the surface which 
surrounds the seaport is a watery waste, useful only as a broad way 
for ships. 

An important, if not principal, source of the wealth of seaport cities 
arises from the facility afforded by the ocean way for intercourse with 
the countries on the coast. But a navigable river brings to the city 
upon its bank the trade and produce of two coasts; while the ocean can 
furnish to one city the domestic commerce of but one. The rivers of 
this great valley are so long and so navigable that more of the produc- 
tions of the country can be cheaply concentrated here than can be 
brought to any seaport. 

The difficulty of intercourse between the Atlantic ports and the cities 
of the valley, as well as the want of capital in the West, has had, and 
still has, a tendency to maintain the superiority of the Atlantic cities. 
But let the railways, combined with the rivers, open ample, quick and 
cheap communication with those ports, and those cities may hereafter 
hold to the cities of the West the subordinate relation of the port to 
the city. The port of New York may be, also, the port of Cincinnati, 
whither foreign commodities will be transported direct, without the in- 
tervention of the merchants of New York. We have been so long ac- 
customed to pay tribute to the merchant princes of the East, and to 
look to Eastern markets instead of Eastern ports, for our merchandise, 
that it is difficult for us to believe that the time is coming, or can ever 
come, when all articles of foreign growth or manufacture will be sought 
in their foreign homes by our own merchants, and imported over land 



THE EAILROADS OF CIl^CIXNATI 71 

I 

as well as sea to the markets of the West, and when New York and 
Boston will have occasion to look to some central metropolis on the Ohio 
or on the Mississippi for the price current and for the ruling rates of 
exchange. 

The Eastern cities have hitherto possessed the capital, which is neces- 
sary to carry on an importing trade. But time and the gigantic growth 
of this great valley will place the majority of capital as well as of 
population in its own cities. New York and other Atlantic cities, though 
they will ever remain the emporiums of the Atlantic, may at length 
bear to some greater city of the West no higher relation than that of 
ports of entry to a mart of commerce, such as Havre and some other 
seaports of France bear to Paris; and such as Joppa anciently bore to 
Jerusalem. 

If we would be that shining center to which shall converge, and from 
which shall radiate, the untold commerce of the West, we must present 
attractions and facilities for traffic and for travel. Our competition is 
to be with other cities of the West. Nothing could possibly be more 
senseless and absurd than that egotistic opinion, sometimes expressed, 
that Cincinnati is already so great that our trade and our importance 
cannot be carried away by superior improvements and superior energy 
on the part of other Western cities. 

I have already said that great as are the natural advantages of Cin- 
cinnati, she holds no such monopoly as to secure her present rank among 
the cities of the West, unless she shall be governed by a comprehensive 
and a liberal policy on the subject of internal improvements. The time 
may yet come (and who of us does not pray that it may be soon) when 
Cincinnati shall have established her commercial superiority on a sure 
basis, so that no rival interests can obscure her prospects; when, like 
London, or Paris, or New York, she cannot be passed by those groat 
internal improvements that mark out the courses in which the commerce 
of the world shall run. Cincinnati has not yet grown so great as to 
rely on that greatness for a continued growth. East, West and South 
lie countries of unbounded fertility; but she has put forth her Eailroad 
improvements toward the North only. Her manufacturing interests, 
which have grown with her growth, and strengthened with her strength, 
and now form a leading element of her prosperity, are waiting for those 
great facilities by which they may become as near to the South and 
the West and the East as they are to the North. 

If the improvements that shall be constructed in this valley during 
the next fifty years shall be made to converge upon some other point, 
avoiding this — that point, whether on the river or on the lake or remote 
from either, wheresoever it shall be, will be a greater city than this 
Queen of the West. 

What is our hundred thousand people compared with the cities v.hich 
will be in this valley fifty years hence? It becomes our fair and youth- 
ful city, in an age of such enterprise and such change, to be modest in 



72 ALPHONSO TAFT 

I 

her pretensions, relying more on her own activity and merit than on her 
queenly title for the maintenance of her hitherto proud position. 

We come, then, to the projected road toward the West. A liberal 
charter was granted in the year 1848 by the Legislature of Indiana for 
a road between Cincinnati and St. Louis, through Lawreneeburg and 
Vincennes. This charter has been confirmed by the Legislature of Ohio. 
The people of the city, first in primary meetings, before the enactment 
of the law, and afterwards at the polls, in voting under the law, have 
expressed their sentiments emphatically in favor of subscribing to the 
enterprise. The City Council, however, have hesitated and faltered. In 
this hesitation they have been encouraged by some who suppose that the 
public interest requires that the project should be defeated. 

What, then, in the first place, are the objections and what the induce- 
ments to carrying out the project to which the city is committed by 
her vote? 

One great obstacle standing in the way is the magnitude of the work 
and the amount of the subscription proposed. It is believed that by 
the subscription the city will incur both a great debt and high taxes. 
A million of dollars, when all raised by the issuing of the city bonds, 
which might happen in the course of four or five years, would require 
sixty thousand dollars each year to pay the interest. This, upon the 
present valuation of the taxable property in the city, viz., forty millions 
of dollars, would require a tax of about one mill and one-half of a mill 
on the dollar. 

We are to recollect that the taxes of the present year provide for the 
payment of one hundred and twenty thousand dollars of the principal 
of our city debt, which is an extra call, as no other installment of the 
city debts falls due for many years. The taxes of the present year were 
also intended to meet a large part of the unfunded debt of the city, as 
well as an extraordinary outlay for the erection of schoolhouses. The 
extra charges, therefore, upon the Treasury, for which this levy was in- 
tended to provide, exceeds one hundred and twenty thousand dollars; 
an amount to raise which required a levy of more than three mills on 
the dollar extra. It is manifest, therefore, that we could pay the in- 
terest on the million of bonds, even if they were all issued, without a 
moment's delay, and yet reduce our taxes below the high rate of the 
present year. In truth, the extraordinary amount raised the present 
year would pay the interest on two millions without in any manner en- 
hancing our taxes. 

But we are not to forget that five years hence, instead of forty millions 
of dollars, the present basis of taxation, our taxable property will have 
risen by a new valuation to fifty and perhaps to sixty million. If the 
next five years shall witness the completion of a railway direct from 
Cincinnati to the Wabash, to say nothing of St. Louis, it will also wit- 
ness the completion of a road running directly East to Chillicothe and 
Baltimore; and the taxable property of Cincinnati will in that event 



THE EAILROADS OF CINCINNATI 73 

be increased more than the entire cost of a road from this place to 
St. Louis. Sixty millions will not, then, be an extravagant estimate of 
the property of Cincinnati. But no great and noble undertaking can be 
accomplished without cost and persevering labor. 

Again, although the entering upon so great an enterprise involves the 
expenditure of a large amount of money, and a consequent effort to 
raise it and provide for the interest, we are not to suppose that the 
stock itself in the Railroad will be entirely inert and idle. Our country 
now has some experience in various improvements. Canals have not, in 
general, been profitable. Yet, moderate as have been the profits of the 
Canals, they have in most instances proved a source of blessing to those 
who have constructed them. Eailroads have proved the best stocks in 
the country. They have been made through rich and through poor 
countries; through countries that are productive and those which are 
unproductive. But they have all made a fair return to their owners. 
I know of no exception. Wherever the railway track has been laid, it 
has yielded a profit to gladden the hearts of those who have struggled 
to accomplish its construction. 

If in the barren lands and through the rugged mountains of New 
England, where the prime cost of grading and preparing the way for 
the rails is two-fold more than in the level valley of the Great West, 
Eailroads sustain themselves and pay a handsome profit, what shall we 
eay of a road joining Cincinnati with the Mississippi and running 
through a country every acre of which can produce more than twice the 
product of the average of New England acres? Are we to contradict 
all experience everywhere else? Are we willing to publish abroad that, 
here in the midst of this valley of the West, where every acre is pro- 
ductive, and the poorest land excels the best in other countries, we have, 
nevertheless, at last found a route three hundred and sixty miles in 
length, with the two rival cities of the West as its termini, where the 
land is so sterile that the road must starve to death for want of business? 

I am slow to believe that the people of this city, being more inter- 
ested in this route by far than any other equal number of people along 
the whole line, will blind themselves by any such faint-hearted reasoning. 
The road will earn dividends. How great will be the profits it is not 
necessary now to discuss. I assume that it will pay six per cent on the 
cost. Less than that is contrary to all experience of Railroads in this 
country. How much more it will pay I will not inquire; for six per 
cent is sufficient to justify the enterprise and to confound the arguments 
of its opponents. Six per cent is the interest paid by the city on its 
bonds. If, therefore, this stock should pay but six per cent, the city is 
secure from any considerable loss to its treasury on the capital advanced. 

All else, therefore, is clear gain — the value given to property in the 
city, and the consequent increase of the basis of taxation; the multipli- 
cation of trade and of travel — and the high hope for the future which 



74 ALPHONSO TAFT 

will spring up iu the minds of all her people, will be absolute profit, and 
better, far better, than all dividends. 

But there is another view of this subject which may fairly be taken 
by the people of this city. We all look upon the city debt as a cup 
which we would be glad to have removed from us. Whence shall we 
derive a fund which shall eventually swallow up the debt and the con- 
sequent taxes? Sinking funds, founded solely upon the levying of direct 
taxes for the payment of debt, are not likely to be created with sufficient 
steadiness and perseverance to diminish materially the public liabilities. 
The process is not only slow, but it is dull and prosaic. There is no 
pleasant excitement in it. But if we can add to our prosperity as a 
people, and expand our hopes for the future by such an investment as 
this, we shall cheerfully pay the taxes necessary to meet the interest. 

While the construction of the improvement is going on, cash dividends 
are not expected, although by an equitable and just provision of the 
Railroad charters of the present day, dividends are to be made in the 
stock of the company from the beginning. Hence, we have taken it for 
granted that for a time the city would provide for the interest by taxes, 
without drawing cash profit from the stock. In the meantime the stock 
in the company will accumulate by stock dividends. No surer mode can 
be adopted to create a sinking fund which, in due time, may be adequate 
to pay all our debt. 

Take, for example, the Little Miami Railroad. This has been the 
pioneer improvement of the kind, and as such has met many difficulties 
which experience will teach the companies of the present day how to avoid. 
This charter did not contain the provision above referred to, equalizing 
the burden of construction among the subscribers; so that when the city 
put in its two hundred thousand dollars, it received no dividends in cash 
or stock for several years, while the road was in course of construction. 
But after a portion of the road was put in operation, dividends were 
made in stock. Since that time the accumulations by the stock divi- 
dends amount to $100,000; and in the course of three years to come, if 
the city goes steadily on with that investment as it has done for the 
last three years, the original stock and the accumulations thereon will 
amount to the sum of four hundred thousand dollars; a sum equal not 
only to the original debt contracted, but to two such debts. 

In the meantime, an installment of that original debt is about falling 
due on the first day of May next, and will be met by taxes already 
levied and paid, leaving the Railroad stock to increase at the rapid rate 
of ten per cent annum. The instant that the company shall have ac- 
complished the useful plan of pushing through the branch road to 
Columbus, and relaying its tracks with heavy rail, the dividends will be 
in cash, and the stock cannot stand at less than par. This large fund 
will have accumulated imperceptibly until all will be astonished at its 
amount. 



THE RAILROADS OF CINCINN^ATI 75 

If we regard the Little Miami Railroad in another aspect, we shall 
find other causes to rejoice in this investment made by the city. 

Without that aid the work could not have been accomplished. Its 
accomplishment has probably added to the value of the taxable property 
of Cincinnati an average of not less than ten per cent. Where our city 
would have been without any Railroad at all, it is not easy now to con- 
jecture; but if the direct and indirect effects of this improvement be 
considered, ten per cent must be regarded as a moderate estimate for 
the advance it has caused to the value of property in Cincinnati. 

The taxable property of the city, since the addition of the Eleventh 
Ward and since the general reduction of ten per cent from the whole 
valuation by the Equalizing Board of the last year, is about forty mil- 
lions of dollars. Four millions of that value has, then, been actually 
created by this single improvement. The money raised on that four 
millions of the present year by taxes levied for city and township pur- 
poses, to say nothing of those levied for State and county purposes, nor 
of special assessments, is rising of $30,000; which sum, with the $20,000 
received in dividends on the original amount of stock, make an actual 
profit resulting to the city and township treasuries of more than $50,000, 
or twenty-five per cent per annum on the investment. 

I do not include the $100,000 of city bonds issued and loaned to the 
company, because the company is abundantly able to meet the interest 
and principal of those bonds, as it hitherto has done; and the city has 
not been, and will never be, called on for a dollar of it. 

Nor is this all. Who are they that have received this increase of 
four millions added to their property, the taxes upon which have al- 
ready swelled to so large a sum? Are they not the good citizens of this 
same city of Cincinnati, and have they no thanks to render on their own 
account? Rejoicing in the public prosperity, they will not forget their 
own. 

If the city should continue to hold this stock for fifteen years, the 
amount which would be accumulated in her hands by the dividends only 
would be sufficient not only to pay the Railroad debt, if it should remain 
unpaid, but to pay the Canal debt of $400,000 and all the other debts 
of the city, which now stand against her, excepting only the Water- 
works debt, which in the meantime will be met, principal and interest, 
by the water rents. 

While I would be the last to advise any city government to launch 
into debt without urgent cause, I cannot hesitate to recommend a neces- 
sary policy, because it involves the use of the public credit. Public 
credit may be abused. But when used with discretion, it is the appro- 
priate means of equalizing, between the present and future generations, 
the burden of constructing those necessary works that are to endure for 
ages; but the cost of which is beyond the present money capital of the 
country. This is a just and necessary policy. It is also good economy. 

The money is not here sufficient to accomplish the improvements which 



76 ALPHONSO TAFT 

are essential to our progress. Private credit cannot reach it. If the 
wealthiest of our citizens should issue their individual bonds bearing six 
per cent interest, payable in fifty years, they would not be regarded by 
capitalists. But the city is known abroad. Nor is her existence limited 
to three score years and ten. No executors can intervene to delay her 
creditors. If not immortal, yet no man doubts that she will outlive her 
present promises, with ever-increasing power to perform them. Her 
credit, therefore, is good; and while she is prosperous (which I trust 
may be forever), that credit is not likely to be worse. 

In the present day of universal competition and enterprise, it is dan- 
gerous for the Queen City to pause in fulfilling what she believes to be 
her destiny. That those improvements, which are essential to her pro- 
gress, should be carried forward is required to inspire her people with 
confidence and hope. Many have doubted whether the anticipation or 
the actual enjoyment of success affords the most real satisfaction. With- 
out attempting to discuss this thesis of the schools, we may safely regard 
the golden hopes of our people as forming no inconsiderate part of their 
happiness. They dwell more on the "great hereafter" than on the past 
and present both. They rejoice in anticipated triumphs to be won by 
them and their children. 

' ' Hope springs immortal in the human breast. 
Man never is, but always to be blest." 

If the present were all of Cincinnati, she would be dull and insipid to 
the taste of her citizens. 

Few reflect how much of the importance and the interest that belongs 
to a city like our Queen of the West, in the estimation of the world, 
arises from mere anticipation. A city of a hundred thousand people, 
with the prospect of two hundred thousand by the next census, excites 
far more interest and commands more real respect in the country than 
a place of twice that number of present inhabitants, with the prospect 
of no considerable increase in the future. Let it be said and be believed 
that our city has received her zenith, or that her growth hereafter will 
be slow, while other rival towns will attract the thoroughfares, the trade, 
and the people of the world, and they who come from foreign lands, or 
from distant parts of our own land, to settle in the West, would pass us 
by and seek their homes in some place giving assurance of more decided 
progress. How would the wealth of our millionaires vanish away? 
Where, then, would go the prices of our real estate? And how soon 
would all discourse about the Queen City seem ' ' stale, flat and un- 
profitable?" 

The destiny of Cincinnati is not yet certain. She is located on the 
banks of the beautiful Ohio at, I think, the most favorable point. But 
it is not yet determined to what centers those iron tracks shall point that 
are to be laid down in this great valley in the next twenty years. This 
is the country of Railroads. Nowhere else can they be so cheaply con- 



THE EAILROADS OF CINCINNATI 79 

structed or so well. Nor is there any country more dependent on the 
art for the means of transportation and travel than the West. Her 
clayey soil is, for the great part of every year, impassable for the con- 
veyance of heavy commodities upon the natural roads of the country; 
the general evenness of the surface is of no avail while the wheels of 
commerce are miring in the universal mud. The McAdam roads furnish 
but a temporary relief. The limestone is speedily worn into dust and 
mortar, requiring new labor and new material. But there is no surface 
like that of the valley of the Ohio and Mississippi for the straight and 
easy grade of the railway. It is a fact worthy of the consideration of 
capitalists as well as of the builders of the cities, that while the pro- 
ductiveness of the Western country exceeds that of the Atlantic States, 
on equal areas, in the ratio of more than two to one, the cost of grading 
our Railroads is less by one-half than theirs. 

But to re<?ur again to the St. Louis road — it has been said that the 
citizens were not well advised of the nature of the country at the time 
of the election. Two important facts were supposed to exist when that 
vote was taken. First, that the proposed route was direct ; and sec- 
ondly, that a good road could be made on that route. It was not sup- 
posed that an exact survey or location had been made, but that such a 
survey had been made as to prove satisfactorily that a road could be 
made on the route with practicable, easy grades and at a moderate cost 
per mile. The map lay before the voters, which explained better than 
language could do that the proposed route was on nearly the same par- 
allel of latitude with Cincinnati, while the other routes which had been 
proposed inclined to the North. The map presents the argument at a 
glance. No man, with the map before him, can fail to see that if a 
road be constructed running East and West from Cincinnati, on or about 
the 39th parallel of latitude, it cannot carry passengers or freight to 
the North of us, nor to the South of us, but that it must inevitably bring 
them to us. 

Much argument has been used in the discussion of the subject to show 
that it would be better for Cincinnati to tap a great road passing 
to the north of us. It is said that the country is better in that region, 
and that if we only tap the Great Central Eailway which is contem- 
plated from Baltimore and Wheeling to St. Louis, or the Pennsylvania 
and Ohio Road which is to run from Philadelphia and Pittsburg to St. 
Louis, and which will pass us on lines seventy-five or one hundred miles 
north of us, we shall draw all things to us by our branch ; that Cin- 
cinnati is so great a city that there is no danger that trade and travel 
will go by. It is not wonderful that some who have long seen the vigor- 
ous growth of our city, and who have shared largely in her prosperity, 
should have come to regard her greatness as a matter of destiny, beyond 
the chance of disappointment, and to believe that by tapping the Rail- 
roads of others we can draw out of them their most important advan- 
tages. But the map shows to the eye of everyone that the trade and 



80 ALPHONSO TAFT 

commerce of all those parts of Indiana and of Illinois, which lie between 
the route through Indianapolis and Columbus, and the projected road 
directly to St. Louis, will more readily come to Cincinnati by the south- 
ern than by the northern route. It falls naturally into the southern 
route. All the streams float the produce of the country down and not up. 

It is said that the Southern road will pass through a country not so 
rich in its productions nor so populous as can be found by going 
farther north; and that, therefore, we ought to forego the great advan- 
tage of a direct route in our latitude and go to the capital of Indiana. 

By reference to the census returns of 1840, it will be found that the 
counties through Indiana along the professed route, though not the 
richest nor the most populous, are above the average of the counties of 
Indiana in wealth and population. Eighty thousand people dwelt in 
those counties in 1840, while in the tier of counties directly north there 
were but sixty-three thousand and but two out of some fifteen tiers of 
counties, of that State ranging from East to West, exceed in popula- 
tion and productions these same counties through which it is proposed 
to locate the road to St. Louis. 

By reference to the report of the Auditor of Indiana, for the pres- 
ent year, it appears that the amount of taxes paid by the Southern far 
exceeds that paid by the Northern counties of the State. It also ap- 
pears, that by comparing this with former reports, that the Southern 
counties have advanced more rapidly than those of the North. The 
national road passing through the centre of the State, from East 
to West, has placed the central tier of counties, somewhat in advance 
of the rest of the State . 

But if we take into account all the counties north of the national 
road counties, as described by the auditor's report for the present year, 
it will appear that the aggregate amount of taxable property on the 
grand levy is $47,126,095, and the polls 56,728; while the taxable prop- 
erty of the counties south of the national road counties is $65,759,599, 
and the polls 69,153, showing an excess of the Southern over the 
Northern counties of $18,633,504, in taxed property, and 12,425 in 
tax payers. The national road counties have in taxables $21,011,681, and 
of tax payers, 17,985; so that the aggregate wealth and population of 
all the north half of the State, and the national road counties besides, 
which lies entirely South of those counties. Why. then, should we be- 
tray such anxiety to turn out of the direct line? 

But, it has been said, that it is important to reach the Capital of 
Indiana, whither tend all the contemplated railroads of the State, 
Before canvassing this, and several other objections it is proper that 
we should bear in mind, first of all that it is infinitely more easy to 
obstruct, with groundless objections, the progress of an important enter- 
prise, however, useful, than to carry it successfully through, and, in the 
second place, that whatever direction Cincinnati may contemplate ai? 
improvement, she will meet with clamorous objections from all these 



THE EAILROADS OF CINCINNATI 81 

localities, and their emissaries, which are not on the proposed route. If 
Louisville, New Albany, Jefferson, Madison, and Mt. Carmel on one 
hand; or Terre Haute, Indianapolis, Eichmond and Hamilton, on the 
other, did not see insurmountable objections to this direct route 
through Vincennes, and urge them upon us most affectionately, we 
ought to be disappointed. They will not forget their interests. We may 
be sure of that. It becomes us to see to it that in the conflict of other 
interests, we do not forget our owti. 

The question is not, whether we shall have a road to Indianapolis, and 
the country North and West of that place? But, whether the city of 
Cincinnati, in her corporate capacity, shall now invest the public 
money in that direction. A railway connection with the central portion 
of Indiana is undoubtedly important; nor can it come too soon. That 
it will come we may be well assured; first, as I have already said, by 
branches from the Hamilton and Dayton route; and secondly, by 
branches from the Ohio and Mississippi line, if that line shall be con- 
structed. All this will come, probably, without taxing the corporation 
of Cincinnati. 

The Railroads of Indiana are chiefly in contemplation. They, like 
others, will go where they meet the best encouragement. Give them a 
main trunk on a line with Cincinnati, and instead of our hearing of 
this contemplation of roads converging to Indianapolis only, we shall 
speedily find their greatest routes running into ours. If Cincinnati 
would draw down the wealth and the travel of the interior of Indiana, 
it will never be by "tapping" the main thoroughfare, which is to pass 
from St. Louis through Indianapolis, directly East. She must present 
a thoroughfare of her own; a great line of attraction, which will inevi- 
tably draw into itself the roads from the North and will bring with 
them their freights and their people and distribute in return our manu- 
factures and our merchandise. 

But why send our city, with her million, in quest of a new route to 
Indianapolis, when the direct line toward St. Louis will, by its inter- 
section with the Madison road, furnish us a way as direct to Indianapolis 
as any line by Indianapolis could furnish, to St. Louis? Already there 
is in contemplation a railway from Lawrenceburg also, with a liberal 
charter, through the heart of the State to Indianapolis. That company 
is only waiting our approach to bring us into the very presence of their 
metropolis. The first twenty miles from Lawrenceburg are under con- 
tract, and four hundred men are already on the ground at work. Thus 
at Lawrenceburg we shall m.eet the very thing so much sought for, ready 
planned, chartered, located, and made, to our hands. And for all this 
they ask no million. They allow us to help ourselves to the trade of 
Indiana by investing our money on our own road the West, turning 
neither to the right hand nor the left. 

Nor is this all which we shall meet at Lawrenceburgh. A most im- 
portant branch of the Lawrenceburgh and Indianapolis road is in con 



82 ALPHONSO TAFT 

templation, leaving that line at Greensburgh, a point forty miles from 
Lawrenceburgh, running toward the West, intersecting the Madison road 
at Columbus, passing on through Bloomington, and crossing the Wabash 
at Terre Haute, running through Springfield, Illinois, and reaching the 
Mississippi at Quincy; traversing the best portion of both of those 
great States, and bringing their productions and casting them at our feet, 
if we will accept the boon. Thus, at the very threshold of this great 
enterprise, shall we secure most important objects — objects cherished 
alike by the friends and the opponents of this measure. 

Fifty miles farther on, in our course to Vincennes, we meet the Madi- 
son road near the Vernon, a point between twenty and thirty miles from 
Madison. Advancing but few miles farther, another line crosses our 
track, which is the route joining Jeffersonville on the Ohio with the 
Madison road at Columbus, Indiana, forty miles from Indianapolis. 
Moving westward, thirty or forty mUes more, our route intersects the 
road which Louisville and New Albany are pushing to Salem, Blooming- 
ton, Greencastle, and Lafayette, where it is to be met by a road from 
Michigan City on the Lake. This road is in actual progress. By it 
Louisville hopes to make customers in Indiana, and to win the trade 
which would more willingly come to us. On our arrival at Vincennes, 
we find not only the Wabash and its noble valley, but another Railroad, 
crossing her course from Evansville on the river through Vincennes to 
Terre Haute, on the southern portion of which is already under contract 
and in progress. Thus we cross all the navigable waters of Indiana, and 
not less than five Railroads leading down from all parts of the State, 
and falling into our Cincinnati thoroughfare, as naturally and unavoid- 
ably as the Wabash and other streams fall into the Ohio. 

The road from Lawrenceburgh to Indianapolis wants encouragement 
only to secure its speedy completion. Others of those already mentioned 
are in a state of hope and incipient action. Undoubtedly they have 
been disappointed by a cold and lowering countenance of Cincinnati for 
the last few months, whence they had expected smiles of approbation and 
encouragement. I have not time to describe the rich mines of coal and 
of iron that will be brought within our reach or the boundless natural 
wealth of our sister State, which will then be no longer shut out from 
this, their natural market, when we shall have placed ourselves in close 
communication with her entire system of railways. It is impossible to 
conceive any method by which Cincinnati can become so thoroughly con- 
nected with the improvements of Indiana, or can get such absolute sway 
over her commerce, as by prosecuting the Ohio and Mississippi route to 
the Wabash. 

If, on the other hand, abandoning the direct line to the West, we go to 
Hamilton, and apply our city subscription thence northwestwardly to- 
ward Indianapolis, our route will, indeed, lie through a fertile country; 
but we intersect none of the railways of Indiana except the short branch 



THE EAILROADS OF CINCINNATI 83 

at Rushville, until we arrive at the capital of the State, a hundred miles 
distant. And then, where are we? Seven miles north of Cincinnati, 
on a thoroughfare to the east, at every disadvantage, begging the trade 
and the travel of Indiana to bend their course south to the Ohio, and 
leave the great Central Railway, lying straight before them, toward 
the rising sun. Much of that trade and travel will have already come 
up to the Capital from the south on those very roads of which I have 
already spoken, and which would have fallen naturally into the direct 
route from Vincennes to Cincinnati. Far be it from me, however, to 
discourage a road by the way of Hamilton, or by any other eligible way, 
to Indianapolis. My purpose is to consider, not what improvements 
shall be made, or what shall not be made, but where the weight of the 
city subscriptions is most needed, and where its application is most vital 
to our success as the emporium of Indiana and the West. 

Some of our friends, more nervous than the rest, have expressed ap- 
prehension that this project would build up a dangerous rival in Law- 
renceburgh. That city would unquestionably share with Cincinnati in the 
benefits to result from a more intimate connection between the two 
places. But the only conceivable plan whereby Lawrenceburgh could 
wall higher and more impassable than the famous wall of China, between 
that city and this, and to fill the river with Chevaux-de-frise. Then, 
policy is to open wide the communication with all of our sister cities. 
And blind, indeed, must that city be which, through jealousy of the 
prosperity of its lesser neighbors, would exclude from them the most 
intimate commercial intercourse. 

But it is supposed by others that the river will rival the road, and 
therefore the river is to be shunned. Measuring the entire line from 
St. Louis to the Baltimore and Ohio Road, a distance of six hundred 
miles, the locomotive would run some thirty miles on the bank of the 
river; and we are warned against the opposition of the river. 

It is fortunate for our city that its location is on a great bend of the 
river, so that a line can run east and west through Indiana, Illinois, and 
Ohio, and yet touch the river at and near Cincinnati, and nowhere else. 
That there will be a competition for the St. Louis and New Orleans 
travel, between the river and the Railroad, when the route shall be com- 
pleted, is highly probable. This competition may affect, to some extent, 
the steamboat interest, but will benefit the public. But it is not a 
strange thing nowadays for a Railroad to venture on the bank of a 
navigable river. The Delaware and the Hudson and the Kennebec have 
each received a railway on its banks, and even "on Old Long Island's 
sea-girt shore," the railway has not feared the competition of the steam 
and the sails of the Sound. From New York to New Haven, also, a 
track is laid upon the shore, and the cars daily pass and repass the 
steamers and all sorts of vessels under way between the same points. 

Before leaving this topic, I must call the attention of the taxpayers 
of Cincinnati, who are to share in the payment of more than half of a 



84 ALPHO^^SO TAFT 

million of debt and interest contracted for the Cincinnati and White 
Water Canal, to the fact that the stock of that company, valueless at 
the present time, may be made valuable by transforming the canal into 
a railway. This is not without a precedent. The canal from New 
Haven, Connecticut, to North Hampton, was a failure, involving the city 
of New Haven and all its owners in debt. But since they have laid the 
rails upon it, it has done for New Haven and the country through which 
it passes more than they had ever hoped from the canal. It has been 
successful. This is the only plan by which Cincinnati can ever hope to 
realize a dollar of profit from all her stock in this expensive work. 

For ten years has the city received no dividends nor interest on her 
$400,000 in canal stock, while she has paid her semi-annual instalments 
of interest, amounting to over $24,000 every year. The amount of prin- 
cipal and interest invested in that concern by the city is not less than 
$700,000. In the meantime, the right of way which has been so little 
used, has become valuable, and the city can appropriate it to a useful 
and most important purpose. This may be done by obtaining legisla- 
ture permission to purchase the right of way, or by contracting for the 
use of that right and compensating the Canal Company for it, by the 
carriage of merchandise. That an arrangement could be made without 
difficulty, satisfactory to all parties, is not doubtful. For who would 
not prefer the Railroad to the canal? This plan, which I cannot take 
time here to unfold in its details, very nearly concerns the pecuniary 
affairs of the city. And yet it would seem that the city authorities are 
struggling to escape from the route which would enable them to use the 
bed of the canal for a profitable and useful purpose; and although the 
vote of the people contemplated this route, and none other, the question 
would seem to have been not whether this is practicable and good, but 
whether a practicable route could possibly be found anywhere else? 

Here I must beg leave to notice a remark in the excellent report of the 
President of the Little Miami Railroad Company for the past year. 
After giving a very comprehensive and highly satisfactory view of the 
several Railroad improvements connected with the prosperity of Cincin- 
nati, in which he places the Western route on its broad and true basis, 
he adds: "Our citizens have shown their deep interest in this project 
by their vote, sanctioning the subscription of a million of dollars on the 
part of the city — a vote rendered nugatory by the refusal of Illinois to 
allow the right of way through the State." 

The last clause of this remark, I presume, was inadvertent, and I 
notice it only because it may give color to an opinion which has been 
expressed by others, and which opinion I consider erroneous, and likely to 
be prejudicial to the interests of the city. The idea is that nothing can 
be done until Illinois shall grant the right ot way. But had Illinois 
granted or promised the right of way when the people of Cincinnati 
cast their vote, which, it is supposed, has become "nugatory?" Never. 
The law of Illinois stands precisely as it stood when the election took 



THE RAILROADS OF CINCINNATI 85 

place, excepting that a general law has been enacted authorizing Rail- 
roads to cross the State, provided they enter and leave their confines 
where towns can be built up in Illinois. 

A leading object with Cincinnati was and is to reach the Wabash 
Valley at a good point. St. Louis, it is, which most interested her in 
crossing Illinois. But who fears that if our railway shall once approach 
the line of Illinois and shall knock for admittance, she will not welcome 
so good a customer? Not the people of Cincinnati. They did not fear 
it at the polls; they do not fear it now; and it will not answer the pur- 
poses of this city now, when rival enterprise is seeking to gain the mas- 
tery over her, to allow herself to be lulled into a faint-hearted, indolent, 
inglorious repose, because a neighboring State has not opened her doors 
for us to enter while we are yet two hundred miles off, and could not 
enter for three years if her doors were open never so wide. The spirit 
of Cincinnati is made of sterner stuff. It has never been the policy of 
the Queen City to wait for the permission of distant and adverse inter- 
ests before she commenced an important enterprise essential to her own 
position and prosperity as a city. She may do it now. But let her not 
be beguiled with the idea that she is bound to wait for Illinois legisla- 
tion before attending to her own interests. 

The law under which the people of Cincinnati cast their vote did not 
at all depend for its validity upon the action of Illinois. It has more 
than once been asserted that such was the case. But an examination of 
the charter plainly shows that the assertion is incorrect. The charter 
of the Ohio and Mississippi Eailroad Comprny provided for the com- 
mencement of the work, whether Illinois or Ohio should bear or should 
forbear; and the only limitation upon the power of the company was 
that they should not carry the road into any State until the right of 
way was granted by that State. They were not to carry the greatest 
blessing of the age where it was not wanted. But they could have begun 
in Indiana, when no other State had opened the way for them; and 
that beginning would have been the commencement of the Ohio and the 
Mississippi Railroad. The power of the company was complete, though 
they could not go to the Ohio on the one hand, or to the Mississippi on 
the other. But Ohio has opened her confines and affirmed their charter. 
The way is, therefore, unobstructed from Cincinnati to the rich country 
of the Wabash. Her fields are "already white for the harvest." We 
have but to enter in and take possession of her commerce and her travel. 
There is no legal necessity, because a corporation is christened by the 
great names of the Ohio and the Mississippi, that it shall build no road 
which does not span the entire space between these noble rivers. It is 
not true, therefore, that the vote of our people on this subject has been 
rendered ' ' nugatory ' ' by the refusal of Illinois to grant the right of 
way. Nor is it necessary to imagine any such lion in the pathway of 
the prosperity of our city. If that vote has been rendered ' * nugatory, ' ' 
it has been done by the State of Illinois. 



86 ALPHONSO TAFT 

But we should not forget that we have the right of way through 
Tndiaiia, which, in the general jealousies of these times, may be with- 
drawn. Indiana has towns and cities which shall be shorn of their 
glory if this road shall be built. Madison and Evansville and other 
important places on the Ohio may yet be influential with the Indiana 
Legislature as Alton and Mt. Carmel have recently proved to be with 
that of Illinois. If our locomotive once visits the Wabash on the direct 
line to Vincennes, the aspirations of these embryo emporiums to a rivalry 
with the Queen of the West will be instantly dashed, and Cincinnati 
will be brought as near, for all practicable purposes, to their customers 
as they are themselves. 

Nor have we any guaranty that Indiana will hereafter grant new 
charters to suit the interests or the caprices of Cincinnati. At the 
session of her Legislature, just now closed, the effort was made to obtain 
a charter for a road direct from Indianapolis to Harrison, toward Cin- 
cinnati. The bill was referred to a special committee of twenty-five, 
and after deliberation, the committee reported, by a strong majority, 
against the bill, and the report was sustained in the House by a decisive 
vote. It may be, therefore, that if we could reach the interior of In- 
diana with our line of improvement, it must be under charters already 
granted. Such a policy in any State is to be deprecated; and yet it 
has been persevered in by Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and 
Illinois, and now, it seems, has been countenanced, if not adopted, by 
Indiana. 

It is not to be disguised that the leading characters in that State are 
not partial to us. They are determined to build up cities in their own 
State. They say they will not pay tribute to Cincinnati when they have 
towns on the river and in the interior capable of being made cities of 
importance. They have learned that in these days it is the railway that 
builds the city. It may also be (for nothing certain can be said of 
legislative proceedings) that Illinois would not allow any road to go to 
St. Louis. But we can have a choice between Alton, twenty miles above, 
and Chester, sixty miles below, that city; and I know not how many 
other points there may be on the Mississippi where the road could ter- 
minate agreeably to the law of Illinois. But all these things in their 
order. Our policy is, first, to reach the Wabash. One way is open to 
us, and that is practicable and good, if not the very best. 

And here, I would not be misunderstood. I look for no five million 
subscription to carry the road to the Mississippi at a single bound. I 
am not so sanguine as to rely on the immediate subscription of an 
amount of stock sufficient to carry it even to the Wabash, although I 
regard its speedy prosecution to Lawreneeburgh and the Madison road 
as secure if the city shall subscribe, and that it would not very long 
stop short of Vincennes. I am not prepared to advise that partners be 
admitted who shall pay their subscriptions in any medium less valuable 
than money, or that the city shall take up this charter until by a com- 



THE RAILROADS OF CINCINNATI 87 

mission of her own appointment she shall have examined the books and 
conditions of the concern; nor until all improvident contracts and em- 
barrassing arrangements, if any such exist, shall be rescinded or made 
satisfactory. 

But I believe that the city should cause such examination to be made 
without delay, and that she then signify to the company the terms of 
the subscription which she deems fair; or if there are any obstacles 
to be removed, that they may be plainly declared, so that the public 
and ourselves may know where we stand. Of the result I can entertain 
no doubt. The will of the city would be omnipotent. Everything would 
yield to her reasonable requirements, and she could and would become 
the mistress of the enterprise. Her subscription to the stock would 
place the powers of the stock in her hands. The stock would elect 
directors, and the preliminary board would cease by the provisions of 
the charter. The city would entrust the direction to hands selected by 
herself. The charter is adapted to our wants. It allows the company 
to confine its operations to a part of the route only or to compass the 
whole. The city, through the directory, elected by her stock, will have 
as entire control over the corporation as any good citizen of Cincinnati 
can desire. She can open and close the books for subscription to the 
stock when and where she shall see fit. The question of location will be 
equally under her control; and if, after the thorough exploration, which 
will necessarily precede the establishment of the line for the track, it 
should be thought expedient to change the route from any point named 
in the act of incorporation, it will be less difficult to obtain such change 
by an amendment than to obtain a new act to supersede the present 
route. The money would be expended on that portion of the road near- 
est the city. Such is the express obligation of the charter; and neither 
the company, nor the City Council, nor the people themselves, have 
power to expend it anywhere else. This million was dedicated by the 
Ohio Act, and by the vote of the people under that act, to this and to 
no other purpose. The section, therefore, between Cincinnati and Law- 
renceburgh would first be made complete with depots, locomotives, cars, 
and furniture, and put in actual operation. The subscriptions by the 
city and in the city, and along the route this side of the Madison line, 
would probably carry it to that line. Once in operation to Vernon, the 
road, with such subscribers as it shall enlist where it goes, will work its 
own way to any terminus that may be desired without aid from us. 

I am aware that there are those who are not unfriendly to this project 
and whose opinions are entitled to the highest consideration and respect, 
who believe that we do not possess sufficient information of the nature 
of the country between Cincinnati and the Mississippi to warrant the 
city so far to commit herself as to subscribe under the present charter 
without more extensive and thorough explorations and surveys. For my- 
self, I would prefer that the city should be committed to a route, one 
feature of which should be directness toward the West, and that the 



88 ALPHONSO TAFT 

explorations be made under this charter which we now have, and at the 
cost of the capital of the company. 

But if we as a community are not willing to proceed under this charter 
upon the faith of the reports heretofore made, and the information al- 
ready obtained, one of two things would seem to be incumbent upon us: 
first, that we employ engineers to examine the country and the proposed 
routes, and report; or secondly, that we subscribe as a city an amount 
of stock suflScient to defray the expenses of such a survey and explora- 
tion to be made by the company. The time required for such an exam- 
ination would probably be five or six months, and the cost some fifteen 
or twenty thousand dollars. But the time and the cost are of small 
moment compared with the magnitude of the subject. Such a proceed- 
ing on the part of the city would indicate a sincerity and an earnestness 
which would inspire confidence in the people of Indiana that something 
would eventually be done. It would wake up all the intervening locali- 
ties to present their claims and their inducements; and if, after hearing 
all the reports, arguments and propositions, our City Council could make 
up their opinion upon them and carry that opinion into prompt and 
decisive effect, it might — and it might not — secure harmony in carrying 
out the great purpose of establishing a communication with Indiana and 
the West. Agreement, — concert of action, — is indispensable to the ac- 
complishment of so vast a project. Ten men can mar more than ten 
thousand can mend. When we cannot agree to act, we must agree to 
inquire and explore. It is necessary ' ' to lay aside every weight, and 
run with patience the race that is set before us." 

I have dwelt at some length upon this Great Western Way as well, because 
I regard it nearly allied to the final triumph of Cincinnati in her race 
to be the emporium of the West; as, because it is the only improvement 
which, having received the sanction of the law and the votes of the people, 
has seemed to be on the point of being abandoned. It is the subject 
now in order before the minds of the good people of Cincinnati; and it 
is alike their duty and their interest to consider and decide what shall 
be done. If, after pledging ourselves to this improvement, so vital to 
our interests, we abandon it, what guaranty can we give that other im- 
provements, one after another, will not share the same fate? And if, 
at some future time, after seeing the trade of Indiana is carried away, — 
some to Louisville and other cities on the river, on roads which they are 
now building, — and some to the cities of the East, on the Great Central 
and other roads, and avoiding Cincinnati, — we shall again attempt a 
bargain with Indiana for her commerce, we may have to pay more 
dearly and obtain what is far less valuable than that which is now 
offered freely, like Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, Cin- 
cinnati must open her way to the West. It must be no winding way. 
It will run to the Wabash and the Mississippi, if not to San Francisco. 
While we are without a road to the West, we are confined, — bound in to 
saucy doubts and fears. 



THE EAILROADS OF CINCINNATI 89 

But we must afford to lend a helping hand to those who would con- 
tinue the same great line toward the East in the direction of Hillsbor- 
ough, Chillicothe, and Baltimore. Our City Legislature has, as I think, 
done wisely in praying to the General Assembly to allow a popular vote 
on the question of subscribing $100,000 to this road. "We are a won- 
derful people for asking permission to do great things. We keep our 
own Legislature, to say nothing of the Legislatures of the neighboring 
States, in a continual ferment with our prayers for power to go to work 
on great enterprises. We memorialize them, send men to rehearse in 
their hearing the advantages of our plans. We convince them, and lo: 
when the power comes, our zeal too often "oozes out at our fingers' 
ends;" and anon, we fill the air with our objections and our excuses 
for doing so little where we had promised so much. We want our road 
located by others to suit us, without an agency of our own, though 
neither those others, nor ourselves, know, or can know, where we want it. 
We want permission, first of all, to go through Illinois, which we cannot 
possibly reach for years. Fearing a work is impracticable, we send our 
engineers to explore; and when they come back with a report that the 
thing can be done, and well done, instead of acting upon their advice, 
we too often excuse ourselves by discrediting and disparaging them. 

But we may go too fast as well as too slow, and perhaps we had 
better congratulate ourselves on our wisdom and discretion. Great de- 
liberation is necessary in matters of this sort, and the hesitation and 
the delays which have interA^ened may have been greater than the mag- 
nitude of the interests involved required. We all alike aim at the pros- 
perity of the city in which is bound up our own prosperity also. If we 
do not lose the golden opportunities which now invite our action, all will 
be well. 

This great line, East and West, being established, one only remains to 
make our position secure. Plant the iron rails due south to Lexington. 
Though I have mentioned this work last in the order of my discourse, I 
do not regard it least in importance, or in its probable influence upon 
the prospects of Cincinnati. At Lexington, it may connect with the 
Nashville and Southern Atlantic Road, as well as with that from Louis- 
ville and Frankfort; and the time is probably not far distant when we 
should thus become connected by railroad communication with New 
Orleans. But what is more important to Cincinnati, she would form a 
profitable acquaintance with the rich interior of Kentucky, a country of 
whose vast wealth we have heard, but from which we have been effectu- 
ally severed by bad roads, and a total want of improvements in a part 
of the country intervening between that city and this. The city of 
Lexington lies about as near to Cincinnati as Springfield, Ohio; and yet, 
while our intercourse with the latter is so constant that the citizens of 
Cincinnati regard it almost a suburban village of their own, they speak 
and hear of Lexington and its vicinity as of some foreign land. It is 
scarcely possible to estimate the advantages to be derived from such a 



90 ALPHONSO TAFT 

connection. The country for forty miles around Lexington is in the 
highest state of cultivation, and taken all in all is probably the finest 
body of improved agricultural land in the Union. The productions of 
that region, being in a more southern climate, would give variety to 
our markets. 

Louisville and Maysville have enjoyed the commerce of this central por- 
tion of Kentucky. But a charter has been granted for a railway from 
Covington ; and the people along the line are waking up to its importance. 
A survey has been made, and a satisfactory route has been found. A 
subscription of two hundred thousand dollars on the part of the city is 
supposed to be sufficient to secure the accomplishment of the work and 
open to us the same easy and profitable intercourse with the South which 
we now have with the North. It will pass through some of the wealthi- 
est counties of the State, among which is Bourbon, the fame of whose 
farms is bounded only by the fame of Kentucky herself. Louisville sees 
the splendor of the prize to be won by Cincinnati in that region, and 
the tax-hating people of that city have subscribed half a million of 
dollars to the project of carrying their railroad to Frankfort, from 
which place to Lexington a railway is already in operation. 

Let no lover of progress be too much alarmed at the magnitude of 
the effort which the accomplishment of such a system will require of 
our city. It is not now beyond our ability. It is but a fraction of the 
cost which will fall on us. The entire amount to be invested by the 
city will not, in any event, exceed two millions, to be raised in the course 
of five or six years. The only roads requiring aid from the city are the 
Western and the Southern and the Eastern. The first will require 
$1,000,000, the second $200,000, the third $100,000 amounting in the 
aggregate to $1,300,000. 

I omit the Northern because I suppose it will not be necessary to 
invest more in that direction than has already been done. The Ham- 
ilton and Dayton Eoad lies through a country too rich and populous to 
need other than private subscriptions. Capitalists who have a knowledge 
of that country and that people have sought the stock, and will seek it 
as a safe and profitable investment. If the city aimed at making money 
only, it might well buy the stock in that company. Branches from that 
road to Indianapolis and the interior of Indiana will probably be taken 
up and carried through by the country in which they shall lie. Of the 
correctness of this opinion, the city will be able to judge whenever she 
shall be invited to subscribe and when legal authority shall be granted 
to vote upon the question. To these investments by the city, it might be 
necessary to add loans of the credit of the city for a farther amount, 
not exceeding, however, the other $700,000. But such loans would be 
secured by the roads themselves and would probably be no burden to 
the city. The roads would pay the interest and the principal, as the 
Little Miami Eailroad Company has paid the interest and will pay the 
principal of the bonds loaned to them. In all this, discretion and judg- 



THE KAILROADS OF CINCINNATI 91 

ment are to be used by the city government as to the time when and the 
mode of accomplishing the great purpose. 

We are not to expect that such a system will be accomplished in a day 
or a year. It can grow to maturity by degrees only. But let it be 
declared as our policy, and as soon as events shall justify let it be com- 
menced, that the world and ourselves may know to what we aspire. Thus 
may we awaken the sympathies and stimulate the hopes of those sections 
of the country whose products and people we expect hereafter to greet 
in the markets of Cincinnati. Those people will soon perceive that they 
have a common interest with the city, and their aid will be efficient to 
give success to her enterprises. These improvements will be in profitable 
use long before they will be completed. But let them be commenced, 
and they will inspire with hope those who are interested in their com- 
pletion and will influence the courses of other improvements which may 
be projected while they are in progress. 

In the meantime the property of the city of Cincinnati during their 
construction will be enhanced by their influence far beyond the amount 
invested, and the taxes on that increase will pay more than all the interest 
on all our debt. Such are the lessons of recent experience. 

Prior to 1840 the cities and towns of Massachusetts were stationary. 
Then commenced the operation of their Railroad system, imperfect at 
first, but growing yearly more complete. Worcester, from a town of 
seven thousand inhabitants, has become twenty thousand. Springfield, 
from a beautiful village, has become a powerful city. Boston, too, had 
then been on a stand, if not retrograding. But little was said or thought 
of Boston. New York and Baltimore and other great cities were keep- 
ing pace with the growth of the country. But Boston inspired no hope 
of progress, and her people were migrating. 

In 1841, however, she opened her Eailroad over the mountains to 
Albany. She sought the commerce of the West. Her competition was 
with New York. New York had the Hudson, with the finest steamboat 
navigation in the world and a distance of but one hundred and fifty 
miles. Boston crossed a chain of mountains, with steep grades, had 
curves, and a distance of two hundred and six miles. 

The race commenced in '41. Boston had then of property, personal 
and real, $98,006,600, and New York had $252,194,920. Five years 
after, in '46, Boston had on her grand levy $148,839,600, having gained 
$50,833,000; while New York had but $245,221,401, having lost 
$6,973,519. 

All of this immense growth of Boston is not to be ascribed to the 
Great Western Eailroad alone. Much is undoubtedly to be credited to 
the numerous other roads which have been made to converge around 
Boston as a center, and which have placed that city on the scale of 
Eailroad facilities second only to London, among all the cities of the 
world. It was the Great Western Eailway, however, which held New 
York in check. 



92 ALPHONSO TAFT 

But the great city of Gotham, which had reposed securely on her un- 
rivaled natural advantages and laughed to scorn the busy dreams of 
that ' ' City of Notions, ' ' away off down East, beyond the range of the 
Western trade, now began to grow serious. Her merchant princes began 
to feel the absence of some of their best customers from Ohio and other 
Western States. And, upon examination of her tax duplicates, she 
found out to her surprise, and that of everybody else, that the tide was 
actually against her, and she was going backward. 

Now tell us, ye wise men of Cincinnati, what measures did the Empire 
City adopt to retrieve the ground she had lost and which Boston had 
won? Did she still rely on her noble river to compete with the Railroad, 
or did she wait any longer for Pennsylvania to get over her fit of jeal- 
ousy, or grant the right of way across her territory? She had waited 
too long. She repented. Did she not then put forth her iron fingers 
to feel for Lake Erie? And is she not there still working through 
earth, rock, mountain and morass in the hope of engrossing the favor 
of the West, which in an unlucky hour she had almost idled away. 

But this was not all. She was no longer beguiled by the splendor of 
her North river navigation. She had found out that the time had come 
when men and merchandise would hie away over the hills, two hundred 
miles by land, to market rather than get on board of her North river 
palaces and go to New York in ten hours. The Railroad carriage 
avoided transshipment which, in modern transportation, is becoming an 
important item. No longer regarding the river, therefore, New York is 
engaged with all her might in forcing a railway against the greatest 
natural obstacles, through the palisades and highlands of the Hudson, 
and through the river itself, straight as an arrow to Albany. And this 
work is to be done at the enormous expense of $8,000,000, a distance of 
but one hundred and fifty miles. Such is the competition of the railway 
with the river. 

The time is coming, and now is, when Cincinnati is to choose her grade 
among cities. She claims no monopoly of nature 's endowments. But 
what inland city can claim more? She is surrounded by the richest 
bounties of the earth. She has but to reach forth to them, and they are 
hers forever. One Northern road has created others. When, therefore, 
the main trunks are laid toward the cardinal points, then will her posi- 
tion be secure. East, West, North, and South, her prosperity will be 
firmly anchored. Then will our hopes be, 

' ' perfect, 
Whole as the marble, founded as the rock; 
As broad and general as the casing air." 

Cincinnati will have no more occasion to take stock in Railroads. Pri- 
vate capital will do the rest. No human power can then remove her out 
of her place. She will then be enthroned as Queen of the mighty West. 



CHAPTER VII 
The Last Whig Convention — Webster Tricked Out op 

THE l^OMINATION JuDGE TaFT ExERTS HiMSELF TO 

Save Webster — With Toombs, He Goes to Wash- 
ington. 

The opening of the campaign of 1852 presented a serious 
problem for the Whig leaders who desired to preserve the 
party and win the coming election. Mr. Taft was a per- 
sonal and political admirer and supporter of Daniel Webster 
and was earnestly anxious to see him nominated for the 
presidency. The Ohio lawyer had become strongly attached 
to Mr. Webster personally and had enjoyed close professional 
relations with him. At the time Mr. Webster was engaged 
in preparing the Girard ease, Mr. Taft was engaged on the 
McMiken case. The two presented many points of similarity 
— points that had never been passed upon by our courts. 

Mr. Webster and Mr. Taft found it mutually advantageous 
to compare the results of their researches and they did so on 
several occasions. Each was successful in the trial of his 
case. Mr. Webster was anxious that his friend Taft should 
go to Philadelphia as a delegate to the coming National Con- 
vention of the Whig party and the latter finally concluded 
to do so. One-half of the Whig leaders were saying that if 
Daniel Webster was nominated it would be the end of the 
Whig party. The other half were as earnest in asserting 
that the end would come if he was not selected. Mr. Taft 
was much afraid that both sides were right. 

Daniel Webster and President Millard Fillmore were the 
best of friends, personally and politically, and the success 
of the Webster effort depended on the President being kept 
out of the race. 

The slavery question was rocking the country from end to 
end and threatened the dismemberment of the union of the 
states. Many of the Whig leaders of the South had left the 
party and gone to the Democrats because they believed that 



94 ALPHONSO TAFT 

tbe institution of slavery was safer with the country in the 
hands of that party. Both sides had made compromises on 
the question that each hoped would hold the south in line. 
Each party, Whig and Democrat, had pledged himself to the 
protection of slavery and in favor of the enforcement of the 
fugitive slave laws. This latter pledge was especially dis- 
tasteful to the Whigs of the north, while it had little effect on 
those of the South. A big proportion of Northern voters 
saw no strength in a party pledge to aid in catching runaway 
slave« in the North and returning them to their Southern 
owners. But the reply was: ''It's the law, and we must 
obey the law." 

Governor Wm. H. Seward, then called by his opponents 
''the Artful Dodger of New York politics," was dominating 
the opposition to Mr. Webster and doing it with his usual 
skill. It was evident that Mr. Webster would be nominated 
if President Fillmore's name could be kept from the conven- 
tion, and it was equally evident that the Seward forces did 
not intend to permit this to be done. The argument of the 
opponents of Webster was that, to hold the South in line, 
we must go further on the slavery question than our oppo- 
nents. We must not only meet them with as strong a pro- 
slavery platform, including our support of the fugitive slave 
law, but we must give them a Southern man as a candidate 
for the Presidency. 

The Convention met Thursday, June 16, and all expected 
that the work would be finished and adjournment reached by 
Saturday night. The Ohio delegation, including Mr, Taft 
and his alternate, Thomas Spooner, reached Philadelphia 
Wednesday morning. They were impressed with the deter- 
mined opposition to Daniel Webster, led by Mr. Seward of 
New York. The relations between President Fillmore and 
his secretary of state, Mr. Webster, were so cordial that 
Ohioans could not believe that the President would permit 
his name to be used merely for the purpose of defeating Mr. 
Webster. The first ballot, taken Friday, showed Fillmore 
133, Scott 131, Webster 29. Seven Ohio delegates voted 
for Webster. His remaining votes came, four from the 



THE LAST WHIG CONVEI^TIOIS" 95 

South and the remainder from New England. Ex>bert 
Toombs and Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia supported 
Mr. Webster. The balloting continued without much change 
till Saturday noon, when the Convention adjourned till noon 
Monday. Alphonso Taft, Robert Toombs, and one other 
faithful follower of Webster, took the train for Washington, 




FIRST HOTEL IN ZANESVILLE 



Saturday afternoon, for the purpose of ascertaining why the 
Webster strength was permitted to be cast for the President. 
There they learned that President Fillmore had placed in 
the hands of a Buffalo delegate a letter withdrawing his 
name from the contest. This letter was to be presented at 
the opportune time in the discretion of the delegate who 
held it. The three visitors returned from Washington con- 
fident that President Fillmore's letter of withdrawal would 
be presented Monday, and the nomination of Mr. Webster 
would follow. Instead of this the letter was never presented, 



96 ALPHONSO TAFT 

and on the 50th ballot the Southern delegates began to go to 
Gen. Scott, and on the 53rd he was nominated, receiving 159 
votes to 112 for Fillmore, and 21 for Webster. Robert 
Toombs and Alexander Stephens refused to support the 
nominee of the Convention, throwing their strength to Gen. 
Pierce, the Democratic nominee, materially contributing to 
Scott's defeat at the polls. 

Mr. Taft, Thomas Spooner and the other Ohio delegates 
returned to their homes, supporters of the nominees of the 
Convention, but not very enthusiastically so at first. Mr. 
Webster refused his support to Gen. Scott and was given a 
rousing reception by the people of Boston. The papers of 
Boston said no such reception had been given to any man 
since that to Lafayette in 1826. 

As the campaign progressed the defeat of Gen. Scott be- 
came apparent to about everyone except the candidate. A 
platform pledging the North to return runaway slaves to 
their owners in the South, with a Southern President to 
enforce this law, did not appeal to a great element of Whig 
voters in the North and had little effect in pleasing those of 
the South. 

A few weeks before the election Gen. Scott visited Cin- 
cinnati and was received by a committee of which Mr. Taft 
was chairman. The candidate was chipper and confident, 
but about everyone else saw defeat. 

The campaign of 1852 not only marked the end of the 
Whig party, but also saw the demise of two of its greatest 
leaders; Henry Clay died at the opening of the struggle 
and Daniel Webster soon after its close. 

Mr. Taft continued his interest in the career and achieve- 
ment of Daniel Webster for years after the death of his 
friend. He prepared a lecture on " Daniel Webster, States- 
man and Lawyer," which he delivered on many occasions 
and which was a most illuminating piece of work. 

Mr. Webster neither obstructed nor sulked during the 
Scott campaign. He simply did not support the man who 
was nominated by a trick, and whom he did not regard as 
fitted for the presidency. He went his way, made speeches 



THE LAST WHIG CONVENTION 97 

and was given receptions, and he watched the progress of 
the campaign without comment. On© close to him said, 
''Mr. Webster was never more lovable to his friends nor less 
bitter towards his opponents than during the progress of the 
campaig-n." About the middle of September he came to 
Cincinnati and was closeted for a long while with his friend 
Taft. Spooner says, " What they talked about is known only 
to Him w^ho reveals no secrets." 

In 1868 Mr. Jefferson Davis, former president of the 
Southern Confederacy, expressed the opinion to Col. Samuel 
Hambleton of Maryland, that if Daniel Webster had been 
nominated by the Whigs in 1852, there would have been no 
Civil War. He said Daniel Webster would have beaten 
Gren. Pierce and was the only man who could have done it. 
This would have assured the continuance of the Whig party 
with the support of such men as Robert Toombs, Alexander 
H. Stephens and other leading Whigs of the South. Daniel 
Webster would have carried Georgia and two or three other 
Southern states. His success would have prevented the 
formation of a sectional party which, after all, gave cause 
for secession. 

" And about Slavery ? " he was asked. " Slavery would 
have passed away without war. Slavery was an economic 
and moral issue and a question of civilization. Delaware 
and Maryland would have become free states in this decade 
(1868) and Virginia would have followed." 

Col. Hambleton, who was a Whig and in 1852 earnestly 
devoted to the idea of making Daniel Webster president, 
was much pleased with the comment, in which he heartily 
concurred. And Mr. Davis went on to say: "The Whigs 
of the North who struggled so faithfully for the nomination 
of Mr. Webster were really engaged in an undertaking of 
much greater moment than they appreciated." 



CHAPTEK VIII 

Judge Taft's Fikst Great Sorrow — Mrs. Fanny Phelps 
Taft Passes Away — A Memoir. 

In 1852 Mr. Taft encountered the first great sorrow of 
his life in the passing away of his wife, Fanny Phelps Taft. 
Nothing could more beautifully depict the congeniality of 
their married life nor show in clearer terms the pleasing 
characteristics of both the writer and the subject of the 
article than the memoir written by the husband at the time. 
As this book would be most incomplete without it we repro- 
duce the paper in full. 

MEMOIR 

Fanny Phelps was born on the 28th day of March, A. D. 1823, in West 
Townsend, Vermont, being the second daughter and the fourth child of 
the Hon. Charles Phelps and Eliza Phelps. She resided with her father 
and mother in Townsend, until her marriage with Alphonso Taft, on the 
29th day of August, A. D. 1844, when she came to the city of Cincin- 
nati, where she resided with her husband until her death on the 2d of 
June, 1852. She has left three children living, viz., Charles Phelps, 
Peter Eawson and Alphonso Taft. Two of her children had died in 
infancy, viz., Mary at the age of five days, and Alphonso at the age of 
ten months. Her age when she died was 29 years, 2 months and 5 days. 
Thus early has closed the mortal career of one whose character and whose 
conduct are worthy to be remembered forever. 

Her mind, naturally comprehensive and clear, was thoroughly educated 
in all the common branches of learning, as well as in those which are 
taught in the best schools for the education of females. Her judgment 
was calm and collected, but prompt and practical. Her taste was simple 
and somewhat severe. She was particularly adverse to ostentation and 
show. She was never at a loss to express her thoughts, whether orally 
or in writing, in good and appropriate language. She was very domes- 
tic. Home was peculiarly sweet to her. Never lonely, she was equally 
happy, with or without company. The clothing of her children, as well 
as many other articles of her handiwork in the family, bear testimony 
to her ingenious industry. In speaking of her characteristics, my pen 
is at a loss in what order to name or to rank them. But I must not omit 
to mention one noble trait of her character. She meddled with no one's 
affairs except her own, and was entirely willing that others should enjoy 
their own opinions, and keep their own counsels without the slightest 



100 ALPHOKSO TAFT 

interference or curiosity even on her part. Her own affairs satisfied 
her, and she felt no motive to pry into the concerns of others. Her 
own thoughts, with such aid as she found in books, and in converse with 
her own family and friends, were sufficient for her. Another trait of 
her character, nearly allied to that now mentioned, was an almost entire 
absence of suspicion. Upright and honorable in her own feelings, she 
was unwilling to ascribe different sentiments to others. And yet she 
was not wanting in that sagacity which detects imposture. But she 
took no pleasure in finding out, or suspecting, peccadilloes of neighbors 
and friends. She cherished no suspicions of evil, unless as to matters 
concerning her own interest, nor as to them without strong reasons. 
She was ever cheerful. During the long and severe illness preceding 
her decease, her equanimity never left her, and even in the hour of 
death, though life had many attractions for her, and she loved it, she 
was cheerfully resigned to her fate, trusting in God 

For the last year of her life, her health had become precarious. The 
loss of her first "Ally," a lovely child of the age of ten months, seemed 
to make an impression upon her constitution from which it is doubtful 
if she ever entirely recovered. A few weeks previous to the birth of her 
last child, she had a severe attack of what was called rheumatism in the 
side or chest, but which was a very singular affection. After the birth 
of her second "Ally," she regained her strength but partially, and that 
very slowly, and soon there came on a difficulty of breathing, which 
increased to great severity. To this succeeded, what one physician con- 
sidered, pleurisy and another congestion of the lungs. She was treated, 
however, for congestion. She was extremely sick, and her life hung in 
great doubt for several weeks. At length she again became convalescent. 
But there remained a weight upon her lungs. The lungs were sore and 
the breathing was slightly obstructed, and her pulse was unnaturally 
quick. Her convalescence was scarcely perceptible. Several weeks she 
remained in this unsatisfactory state. At length the soreness of the 
lungs seemed to yield, and she could almost say it was gone. But then 
there remained, and became more manifest, a constriction or tightness 
in the left breast in the region of the heart. This difficulty was constant 
and never let go its hold till death. But it was not in itself very trouble- 
some. About the 20th of May, there happened a sudden change of the 
weather from hot to cold, and it so chanced that she rode out and became 
a little more exposed than usual, and probably took a cold. A violent, 
distracting pain in the head commenced, and all the symptoms of con- 
gestion of the brain followed. After two or three days, she became 
delirious, and so continued for a great portion of the time for the eight 
days preceding her decease. In the hour of death, however, her mind 
appeared clear and calm. When asked ' ' if she felt as if she was dying, ' ' 
she said calmly, "I don't know. Do you think I am?" On being as- 
sured that we thought she was dying, she spoke of the children and 
expressed a hope that they might remember her. She said she "thought 



A MEMOIR 101 

she could put her trust in the Savior, and that she was not anxious about 
living." She greeted each member of the family and her mother and 
sister present with a parting kiss, and died calmly and with scarce a 
struggle. 

It was a source of consolation to her that, if she must leave her 
children who were living, she was about to join those who had gone 
before her. She hoped and firmly believed that she should meet them 
all sooner or later in Heaven. This sentiment she had expressed some 
time previous to her decease. She was a woman of energy and decision. 
It was not likely to be regarded as presumption in her to assume the 
direction on the accomplishment of matters of difficulty. Her compre- 
hension of the objects in view was so clear and so just that she was 
generally prepared to act with decision and efficiency sooner than others. 
I speak not of public enterprises, for she left them to others; but I 
speak of the aptitude with which she took up and carried through what 
came within her province, and yet what was to be done in concert with 
others. Her mind was always ready to guide her fingers to the accom- 
plishment of any useful purpose with accuracy and uncommon prompt- 
ness and despatch. Duty was written down plainly and deeply in her 
mind, and she never for a moment lost sight of it. As a daughter, 
none could be more dutiful — constantly cherishing unfeigned respect for 
her parents, and without any ostentation of her filial regard, ever watch- 
ing for an opportunity to render them a useful service. When the occa- 
sion came, she was there. Her sense of duty toward all her relatives 
was imperative. Self-interest, and even her own health, could not deter 
her from the performance of what she thought incumbent on her to do 
for father, mother, brother or sister. This instinctive sense of duty 
was not limited to her relatives, however, for in all the vicissitudes of 
her life she was quick to perceive the true nature and extent of her 
duties and was resolute and prompt to perform them. 

But her character as a wife was particularly entitled to be remembered 
as a model. During the ten years of her married life, not one word of 
complaint or anger ever escaped her toward her husband. So entirely 
did she earn his confidence by her discretion and intelligent counsel that 
her influence over his actions was all she desired. For her to be denied 
a request made to him was impossible. All his plans and projects of 
life were well known to her and she shared in all his thoughts. In his 
literary reading and writing she was his companion, and rendered him 
valuable aid by her critical discrimination. 

In youth she was impetuous, and there were those who predicted that 
she would prove a turbulent companion. But they knew little of her 
capacity or of the depth and strength of her feelings and principles. 

To have a well-ordered family, comprising persons somewhat advanced 
in life as well as those who are young and inexperienced, is a work of 
merit and requires sound discretion and energy. This evidence of merit 
she had in a remarkable degree, for without time-serving or flattery she 



102 ALPHONSO TAFT 

30 conducted the affairs of her family that the old and the young mem- 
bers of it alike relied upon her as the sheet anchor of the household. 
So justly and faithfully did she bear the responsibility of superintend- 
ing the concerns of the family that no one wished to limit or abridga 
her power. A mind so well educated and so comprehensive as hers could 
not be trammeled by the narrow views of bigotry and sectarianism or 
any other mere ism, while she paid a just respect to all opinions. She 
was too much devoted to the duties of wife, daughter and friend to go 
into the theories of Woman's Rights, and was too happy with things 
just as they were to interest herself extensively in that line of philan- 
thropy. Not that she considered the relative position of woman in society 
altogether as it should be. But the work of changing that position was 
a public one, not congenial to her habits and tastes, and was too un- 
promising for her to embark in it. 

I will add for the especial benefit of our children that their mother 
was an excellent scholar. She had made good proficiency in the acquisi- 
tion of the Latin language, had read all of Virgil's ^neid, and soma 
of Cicero's Orations in the original language, and learned to translate 
from one language to the other with grammatical accuracy and elegance. 
In the mathematics she was prompt and thorough. Arithmetic, in all 
its rules and problems, was familiar to her, and the principles upon 
which the rules were founded were also well understood. She learned 
nothing by mere rote. She had great facility in mental arithmetic, 
which was of peculiar advantage in carrying on the financial affairs of 
the family. Her calculations always came out right. But she had pur- 
sued her mathematical studies much farther, and had thoroughly mas- 
tered the principles of Algebra and of Plane Geometry. 

She seldom read a novel, but read something of history, travels and 
other books of useful information. She was fond of reading good 
speeches? She also read some of the most classical English poets. She 
took pleasure in reading Milton's Paradise Lost and some of Shakes- 
peare's plays. She had read a great many of Mr. Webster's speeches. 
She kept up also with the current newspaper information of the day. 
But her reading was latterly more limited by the failure of her health 
and by the numerous demands that were made upon her time by her house- 
hold affairs and the health of her family. Her memory was good, and 
she was quite remarkable for her accuracy. She wrote with great readi- 
ness, but with equal correctness of style and grammar. She never mis- 
spelled a word. Her memory was almost as good as a dictionary in 
the matter of orthography. 

She was very much interested in the success of the House of Refuge 
and spent some time in endeavoring to be useful in that institution. 

But I must not forget to make particular mention of her happy talent 
for singing. To instrumental music she never devoted any considerable 
attention. The time usually spent by young ladies in practicing upon 



A MEMOIR 103 

the piano was given by her to intellectual studies. At one time she 
commenced taking lessons upon the piano and made rapid progress. 
She was pleased with it and fully determined to perfect herself on that 
instrument. But a friend persuaded her that her time could be better 
employed in the acquisition of knowledge and a thorough intellectual 
education. She, however, gave up these lessons reluctantly, and under 
the impression that she should resume them at a subsequent period. 
But after zealously prosecuting her studies at the school of the Misses 
Edwards in New Haven, Connecticut, in the years 1839 and 1849, her 
fancy for the piano was dispelled and she became quite content to limit 
her musical education to the cultivation of her charming voice, and to 
devote her main strength to the improvement of her mind. Her taste 
for music, however, was natural and good. She would undoubtedly have 
been a good performer on the piano if she had continued her lessons. 
So complete was her command of her voice and knowledge of the prin- 
ciples and rules of music that she learned many difficult tunes from the 
notes without ever having heard them, and sung them with great correct- 
ness and power. 

An aged couple, who were excellent people and good friends of our 
family, Ethan Stone, Esq., and his lady, were passionately fond of good 
singing. In the year 1840, Mr. Duffield, a somewhat celebrated singer 
of songs, who gave public concerts with success, had visited Mr. Stone's 
by invitation and had sung some of his best pieces in his best style and 
with great delight to the old gentleman and lady. The song that had 
pleased them best was that of * ' The Pioneer, " or " Fifty Years Ago. ' ' 
Some years after, when Fanny came to visit at Mr. Stone's, the song 
was often mentioned. To please these excellent old friends, therefore, 
as well as to gratify myself, for I regarded the song as one of real 
merit, 1 procured the notes for Fanny to learn. She had not heard it, 
but so perfectly did she master the music and the spirit of the song that 
she gave it with great effect, and Mr. and Mrs. Stone always regarded 
her performance of it as superior even to that of Duffield. She next 
learned "The Granite State" and sung it with equal success. She had 
sung and knew the music of many songs before, but these two, the song 
of ' ' Fifty Years Ago ' ' and ' ' The Granite State ' ' were the beginning 
of a new series, not of new songs, but selections from those which our 
fancy regarded as best, whether old or new. Every week, for many 
months, added at least one of this series of odes which she thoroughly 
mastered by herself and performed for our entertainment. These con- 
certs were given about once a week when we made our weekly evening 
call at Mr. Stone's. Those old people never wearied of hearing Fanny 
sing. It soothed all the old gentleman's sorrows and quieted all his 
pains, so that after being racked with rheumatic tortures all the day, 
if Fanny came in the evening and took her seat beside him to sing and 
repeated perhaps for the hundredth time some favorite song, he forgot 
all his cramps and twinges of pain and was happy. Very often he was 



104 ALPHONSO TAFT 

affected to tears and weeping. In a great many of her songa she waa 
joined by her sister Jane, who had also a happy talent for singing. And 
it was delightful to witness how the singing of Fanny and Jane seemed 
to charm Mr. and Mrs. Stone. These songs were selected and learned 
one after another, until she had accumulated a great number, when they 
were bound in a volume with an index which she had herself prepared. 
This book should be kept and cherished as invaluable by her children, 
especially by Charley and Kossa who have so often heard her sing. 

Her voice was rich, her enunciation remarkably distinct, her emphasis 
was correct and spirited, and her manner was simple and pleasing. 

Fanny's life was one of great serenity. She regarded herself as 
fortunate and happy, and was thankful to the great Giver of good gifts. 
On one point only was she anxious. She was extremely anxious that 
her children should grow up to be good and intelligent men, and lead 
active, useful and honorable lives. With a mother's fondness, she did 
not doubt their ability to distinguish themselves, but feared lest they, 
like a vast majority of city-bred boys, should yield to temptation, become 
idle, unsteady and inefficient. She wished them to aim at high attain- 
ments, to be industrious and energetic and accomplish something worthy 
of being remembered. Her anxiety on this point was her only source 
of unhappiness. She could better bear disease and even death itself 
than to have her sons grow up useless and undistinguished members of 
the community. Upon the whole, her accomplishments were such as to 
render her useful and delightful to all her friends and tranquil and 
happy with herself. Her character was pure and elevated, and liberal 
and lovely; and her death has caused an aching void not only in the 
hearts of her husband and relatives, but of numerous friends. 



CHAPTER IX 

Founding the Republican Party — The Fiest Meeting 
IN Pittsburg — Judge Taft One of the Delegates 
FROM Cincinnati. 

About January 20th, 1856, Alphonso Taft received in his 
mail a letter from Lewis Clephane of Washington, D. C. 

The letter was a long one and was very explicit as to its 
purpose. It was sent out in behalf of the Republican Asso- 
ciation of the District of Columbia, and was addressed to 
the friends of the Republican movement. With the letter 
was a call for an informal convention to meet at Pittsburg, 
Pa., the following 22nd of February. It was set out that 
this informal gathering would arrange for and issue a call 
for a liational Republican Convention which would make a 
declaration of principles and nominate candidates for Presi- 
dent and Vice-President of the United States to be supported 
at the election the coming fall. 

So far as known this letter was the first brick in the struc- 
ture that formed the foundation of the Republican party. 
Thomas Spooner, the close personal and political friend of 
Mr. Taft, received a similar epistle and it was learned 
that about twenty others had come to Cincinnati. Thomas 
Spooner was undoubtedly a very active man and always on 
hand " to see what we had better do about it." So he brought 
his letter to Taft's office. They compared notes and decided 
to call a meeting. Spooner would hustle around and get the 
right people together. In those days it didn't take a large 
hall to house a Republican gathering. Spooner thought the 
back room of Taft's office would answer, and it did, as he 
succeeded in rounding up only nine persons. 

The meeting decided that a delegation should go to Pitts- 
burg in response to the letter. It was evident that there 
would not be much formality about the meeting. It was 
not to be a convention — just a meeting to decide what should 
be done. The old Whig party had about gone to pieces. 



106 ALPHONSO TAFT 

Its members in the South had joined the slave^holding ele- 
ments of the Democratic party, and its leaders in the North 
were utterly at sea. Something had to he done. The cry 
for an effort to curb the extension of slavery into the terri- 
tories appealed not only to the remains of the Whig party, 
but to a great many Northern Democrats. 

This circular and the letter of Lewis Clephane did not 
advocate or hint at abolishing slavery where it existed. The 
determination was to check the spread of slavery into the 
territories. When the men brought together by Thomas 
Spooner's efforts assembled in Mr. Taft's office, there ap- 
peared to be no anxiety to go to Pittsburg to attend the 
meeting. It was finally decided that Mr. Spooner, Mr. Taft 
and Mr. Remelin would go. It was also resolved that any 
others in sympathy with the cause be invited to go along. 

Thomas Spooner was unquestionably a busy man at this 
Pittsburg gathering. His letters show this, but details of 
the doings of the meeting are very meagre. Even the files 
of the Pittsburg papers fail to tell a satisfactory story of 
the proceedings, and the Cincinnati and New York papers 
of the same period are less satisfactory. Mr. Greeley, who 
attached more importance to the event than did most other 
newspaper men, sent daily despatches to the New York 
Tribune. 

It is to this editorial correspondence of Mr. Greeley that 
we must look for the most authentic account of the conven- 
tion. The last few paragraphs of the last day's report sum 
up the results in these words: 

The resolutions are in substance as follows: 

First. Demands repeal of all laws allowing the introduc- 
tion of slavery into territories once consecrated to Freedom 
and the resistance by constitutional means of the existence 
of slavery in any territory. 

Second. Support by all lawful measures of the Free-State 
men in Kansas in their resistance to the usurped authority 
of lawless invaders, and favors its immediate admission into 
the Union as a free state. 

Third. Strongly urges the Eepublican organization to 



FOUNDING THE REPUBLICAN" PARTY 107 

resist and overthrow the present national administration as 
it is identified with the progress of the slave power to na- 
tional supremacy. 

On motion of Mr. Spaulding, of Ohio, the address and 
resolutions were adopted with nine cheers. 

Mr. Remelin, of Ohio, said the address should have taken 
ground against the Know-Nothings in order to bring in the 
German population. 

Mr, Bond, of South Carolina, moved that a Committee of 
Safety be appointed to meet any emergency that may arise 
in case of conflict in Kansas with the Federal troops. 

A motion that the proceedings be printed in pamphlet 
form and circulated was adopted. Thanks to the officers of 
the convention and the citizens of Pittsburg were voted, and 
the convention adjourned. 

At this preliminary meeting a call was prepared for the 
convention in Philadelphia, and an address was issued which 
was confined to a declaration of principles regarding the 
slavery question. After the convention had adjourned a 
great mass meeting was held to aid emigration to Kansas in 
order to make it a free state. " Bleeding Kansas " was the 
issue of the day. The administration under the domination 
of the slave holders' party was engaged in trying to force 
slavery upon Kansas and the radical opponents of slavery 
were equally active in trying to overcome the slave interests 
by peopling the state with a majority in favor of free insti- 
tutions. 

Although there was much violence, both parties, nominally 
at least, respected the rule of the majority; the effort was 
intended to produce the majority one way or the other. 
Force was met by force and Kansas became for the time 
being a battleground. 

The main purpose of the Pittsburg convention was ful- 
filled. It organizied an executive committee representing 21 
states and the District of Columbia to take charge of the 
National Convention. 

Taft, Spooner, Remelin and Spaulding returned from 
Pittsburg together well satisfi^ed with the work of having 



108 ALPHONSO TAFT 

founded a new party. Spooner was very enthiisiastic as to 
the early outcome. He believed that the Philadelphia con- 
vention would nominate candidates for President and Vice^ 
President that would sweep the country. Evidently Taft was 
not so hopeful. In a letter to Lysander Spooner, Thomas 
says, " Taft is deliberate and logical, but is never over- 
enthusiastic. I wish he were more so." Still, on reaching 
home, both went to work to help make the Philadelphia 
convention the great success they desired. 

The committee which met at Washington in March, 1856, 
had a delicate task before it, for it had to issue a call that 
would appeal to men of all factions opposed to the admin- 
istration, taking care to avoid giving offense to any of them. 
Its well-worded call, with the names of the signers, is here 
reproduced : 

" To the People oj the United States: 

" The people of the United States without regard to past 
political differences or division who are opposed to the repeal 
of the Missouri compromise, to the policy of the present 
administration, to the extension of slavery into the terri- 
tories, in favor of the admission of Kansas as a free state 
and of restoring the action of the federal government to the 
principles of Washington and Jefferson are invited by the 
National Committee appointed by the Pittsburg convention 
on the 22nd of February, 1856, to send from each state three 
delegates from every Congressional district and six delegates- 
at-large, to meet in Philadelphia on the seventeenth day of 
June next for the purpose of recommending candidates to be 
supported for the offices of president and vice-president of 
the United States. 

" E. D. Morgan, New York ; Francis P. Blair, Maryland ; 
John M. Niles, Connecticut ; David Wilmot, Pennsylvania ; 
A. P. Stone, Ohio; William M. Chase, Khode Island; John 
Z. Goodrich, Massachusetts; George Rye, Virginia; Abner 
R. Hallowell, Maine ; E. S. Leland, Illinois ; Charles Dickie, 
Michigan; George G. Fogg, New Hampshire; A. J. Ste- 



FOUNDING THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 109 

phens, Iowa; Cornelius Cole, California; Lawrence Brain- 
ard, Vermont; William Gross, Indiana; Wyman Spooner, 
Wisconsin ; C. M. K. Paulsen, New Jersey ; E. D. Williams, 
Delaware; John G. Fee, Kentucky; James Redpath, Mis- 
souri ; Lewis Clephane, District of Columbia." 

The above signers constituted the executive committee to 
have charge till the organization in Philadelphia was com- 
pleted. 



CHAPTER X 

The Fikst Republican National Convention — Taft 
AND Spoonee Find the Keynote Okator — The Two 
Spooners — Odd Characters in the Convention. 

In choosing delegates to tlie Philadelphia convention which 
was to name the first Republican candidates for President 
and Vice-President of the United States, the district em- 
bracing Cincinnati and the remainder of Hamilton County 
selected Alphonso Taft, J. K. Green, Charles E. Cist, M. 
Eels, T. G. Mitchell and George Hoadley. Thomas Spooner 
had been made a delegate at larga Wm. Dennison, J. M. 
Ashley and J. R. Giddings are other members of the Ohio 
delegation that afterwards attained prominence in the party. 

When the time for the convention approached, Thomas 
Spooner went several days in advance. He " wanted to be 
on the ground in good time," he wrote. 

Taft, Green and Cist arrived a couple of days after 
Spooner, but Taft found his work cut out for him by his 
friend. It was to convince the sub-committee as to the man 
who should be selected to iriake the keynote speech in the 
convention. 

They wanted not only a good speaker, but much more; 
they wanted a great orator. They wanted one who could 
entrance the hearers and thrill the readers of the speech. 
They wanted one who could rock the country from end to 
end, whose speech would be like the one of old, that " rocked 
the Arsenal and fulm'n'ed o'er Greece to Macedon and Ar- 
taxerxes throne." And they got him. 

Thomas Spooner had found the man and Alphonso Taft 
convinced the sub-committee that Spooner's choice was of 
the right man. Spooner wrote : " I was anxious to have my 
friend go before that sub-committee and urge the selection 
of this orator. Taft is so big and earnest and is so im- 
pressive that he is sure to be convincing." 



112 ALPHONSO TAFT 

However, the man urged by Taft and Spooner was se- 
lected despite the very slight urgency from his own dele- 
gation. The man was Kobert Emmett, nephew of that Rob- 
ert Emmett who had been executed in England 53 years 
before for his efforts in behalf of liberty for Ireland. 
Every cry for freedom appealed to his warm Irish heart, 
and when a party was to be floated having for its object the 
freedom of the slaves he wanted to be right in at the launch- 
ing. The sub-committee reported in favor of his selection 
as temporary chainnan. Gov. Morgan called the convention 
to order and nominated him, and he was selected. 

And he made that speech, the speech that put the Repub- 
lican party on its feet, and that was pronounced great even 
for Emmett. Read today in the cold light of changed con- 
ditions, one is not quite as much impressed with it as were 
the folks of that time. But it was a great speech and an- 
swered its purpose admirably. Emmett had always been a 
Democrat, and he mentioned that fact in his address. It 
was probably his past political affiliation that made the New 
York delegates lukewarm about his selection as the orator. 

The selection of candidates for President and Vice-Presi- 
dent was of overshadowing interest. Taft, Green, Spooner 
and most of the Ohio delegation were in favor of nominating 
for the presidency Judge McLean of the U. S. Supreme 
Court, but the judge declined to permit the use of his name. 
Salmon P. Chase could have had the nomination, but hadn't 
faith in the success of the campaign. Wm. H. Seward could 
have been nominated, but his mentor, Thurlow Weed, told 
him his hour had not come. In the meantime John C. 
Fremont had loomed up, and when a ballot was reached it 
resulted in 359 votes being cast for him and 190 for Judge 
McLean in spite of his declination. Wm. L. Dayton, of 
New Jersey, was nominated for Vice-President, receiving 
253 votes; Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, received 110 votes 
for VicerPresident. Fremont and Dayton were declared to 
be the unanimous choice of the convention as its candidates 
for President and Vice-President of the United States to be 
voted for by the electors chosen. Through the eiforts of 



FIRST EEPUBLICAN CONVENTION 113 

Taft, his friend, Thomas Spooner, was made executive com- 
mitteeman from Ohio. 

Alphonso Taft had as associates in that convention some 
odd characters and some who afterwards rendered conspicu- 
ous services to their country. James G. Blaine was a dele- 
gate, so were Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, Nicholas 
Brown of Rhode Island, Noah Swayne and J. R. Giddings 
of Ohio. A. Oakey Hall, pronounced as a Tammany Hall 
Mayor of New York, was also there. But most of the names 
are little known to readers of today. Gen. John C. Fremont, 
the candidate for President, was one of the best known men 
in the whole country and a man of oooispicuous ability in 
many lines of endeavor. He had already become well 
known as the "Pathfinder" in his successful surveys of the 
western country, had served as Governor of California and 
as United States Senator from that state. At the November 
election, he neither swept the country as his enthusiastic sup- 
porters predicted, nor was he overwhelmingly defeated as 
his opponents prophesied. He received 114 electoral votes 
to 174 for Buchanan, his successful opponent. 

Much of the information in regard to the convention is 
from the letters of Thomas Spooner, a most alert and active 
man in the business affairs and politics of Cincinnati. The 
letters were to Lysander Spooner, his cousin, in Massachu- 
setts, also a versatile, original and aggressive man. When 
Lysander wanted to study law, he found that the Massa- 
chusetts statutes only permitted college graduates to become 
lawyers. While preparing for the bar he also procured the 
repeal of the obstructing law. In 1844, the postage from 
Boston was 12| cents to New York, 15 cents to Philadelphia, 
and 25 cents to Washington. Lysander Spooner concluded 
that the United States had no right to monopolize the busi- 
ness of carrying letters unless it carried them at a reasonable 
rate. So he went into the business of transmitting letters 
and established a uniform rate of five cents. He soon had 
the letter carrying trade and Uncle Sam was out of business, 
so far as his territory was concerned. But the Government 
overwhelmed him with arrests, suits and imprisonments, 



114 ALPHONSO TAFT 

and thus broke up the Spooner opposition, but not until the 
country was awakened to the necessity of cheaper postage, 
and a five cent rate was established. Lysander Spooner 
continued his efforts to straighten things out all through his 
long life, his last shot being an open letter to President 
Grover Cleveland, for his " false and misleading inaugural 
address." 

Thomas Spooner was not a reformer, like his cousin Ly- 
sander, but was a most useful and active citizen. He was 
a successful merchant, clerk of the court, and member of 
two National E/epublican conventions. In all things and 
at all times he was the earnest, useful and loyal friend of 
Alphonso Taft. 



CHAPTER XI 

The Cincinnati Observatory — Professor Mitchell and 
His Friend Taft — The Fight for an Observatory 
IN the United States — The U. S. Weather Bureau 
Has Its Start in Cincinnati. 

One of the friends that young Taft made early after his 
arrival in Cincinnati was Professor O. M. Mitchell. The 
two had oome to the Queen City about the same time. They 
were of the same age, both having been bom in the year 
1810, Mitchell in Kentucky and Taft in Vermont. 

Each was a man of fine education, and each was imbued 
with a spirit of devotion to his adopted city. Both were 
impressed with the necessity for moro railroads centering 
in Cincinnati. Mitchell's bent was towards mathematics 
and engineering while Taft was devoted to the law. In 
several cases both were directors of the railroad, with Taft 
as the attorney and Mitchell as chief engineer. This was 
the case with the Little Miami Eailroad, and the Ohio and 
Mississippi and perhaps others. They were not only busi- 
ness associates but close friends and interested in many of 
the same pleasures, and the same public spirit moved them 
both. Mitchell had spent the year or two as professor of 
mathematics at West Point and had given special attention 
to the science of astronomy. In his talk with Attorney Taft 
and other public spirited men, Professor Mitehell frequently 
advanced the idea of an astronomical observatory. Such an 
institution was not found in this country. Frequent men- 
tion was made in the public prints of the observatories of 
Greenwich and in Paris, but no effort at founding such an 
institution had been made in any of the cities of this country. 
To men like those interested in this undertaking this was 
rather an incentive than an obstacle. Professor Mitchell 
prepared a series of lectures on the subject telling of the 
advantages and progress such an institution would indicate. 



116 ALPHONSO TAFT 

He had stirred up such interest and created such a wave 
of excitement that John Quincy Adams introduced into 
Congress a bill providing for a ISTational Astronomical Ob- 
servatory. It failed to become a \siw, but Professor Mitchell 
and his friends succeeded in founding in Cincinnati the first 
observatory in the United States. He began his lectures in 
1845, and kept up the agitation till the work was completed. 
It was located on Mount Auburn, and John Quincy Adams, 
one of the first friends of the cause, came to Cincinnati and 
delivered the dedicatory oration. 

The influence of the Cincinnati Observatory and its 
founder, Ormsby Mitchell, was directly responsible for the 
interest that resulted in the erection of at least three other 
important observatories, including the Naval Observatory 
at Washington and the Dudley Observatory at Albany, ^N". Y., 
and has exerted, more or less indirectly, an influence upon 
most of the other observatories that have since been erected 
in the United States. 

Professor Mitchell, accompanied by his friend Taft and 
three other friends interested in the cause of education, 
journeyed to Albany in 1846, where a meeting of educators 
was held, having special reference to the study of all classics. 
An interesting feature of this meeting was that the principal 
address in advocacy of the study of the Greek and Latin 
languages was delivered by a professor of mathematics. 
This professor argued that in his work of teaching he had 
found that pupils who had been well grounded in the classics 
made the best progress in the study of mathematics. One 
of the results of this meeting was the establishment of the 
Dudley Observatory, one of the institutions in which the 
city of Albany takes great pride. By this time the Cincin- 
nati Observatory had been in operation for awhile and its 
influence was everywhere acknowledged. 

Mr. John Weidig, a well-posted writer, credits this insti- 
tution with the creation of the National Weather Bureau. In 
a recent publication, he says : '* The United States Weather 
Bureau was conceived and born in the Cincinnati Observa- 
tory; Professor Cleveland Abbe, who was director of the 



THE CINCINNATI OBSEKVATORY 117 

observatory in 1868 and 1869, organized a number of volun- 
teer observers in various parts of the country to make me^ 
teorological observations at specified times and telegraph 
them to the Cincinnati Observatory, where they were classi- 
fied and arranged for publication in the daily press. Prof. 
Abbe finally developed this into the establishment of our 
National Weather Bureau." The same writer says : 

" It is interesting to recall that one of the two scientific 
inventions of Professor O. M. Mitchell proved its value in 
connection with this service. The other is used by astrono- 
mers all over the world." 

" Professor Mitchell was a genius, and one of the remark- 
able men of his day. Any city in Europe would have been 
proud to claim him as a citizen and erect a monument in his 
memory. Yet, in a little more than a generation after his 
death, Cincinnati has practically forgotten him. Some defi- 
nite action should be taken to preserve to posterity a full 
knowledge of the life and achievements of this remarkable 
man, a memorial tiiat would serve as an inspiration to the 
youth of our own and all coming generations." 



CHAPTER XII 

Marriage to Louise Maria Torrey — Silver Wedding — 
Learning Shorthand of Ben Pitman — Hobbies and 
Recreations. 

On December 26, 1853, Judge Taft married Louise Maria, 
daughter of Samuel D. and Susan H. Waters Torrey of 
Millbury, Mass. The couple had three sons and one daugh- 
ter: William Howard Taft of Cincinnati; Henry W. Taft 
of New York; Horace D. Taft of Watertown, Conn., and 
Fannie Louise Taft, the wife of Dr. Walter Edwards of 
San Diego, Cal. Mrs. Louise Maria Taft survived her 
husband. She was a well-educated woman and of unusual 
fine literary tastes and acquirements. Her abilities and 
inclination enabled her to share her husband's ambitions and 
to enjoy the honors and confidence he earned and received 
from the public. She was a polished writer, and the best 
sketch ever published of Judge Taft's life appeared in one 
of the histories of Worcester county, Mass., and was from 
her pen. She frequently contributed to magazines and the 
literary departments of the daily papers. Though not a 
mere society woman in the usual acceptation of the term, 
she was always a favorite in the society of intellectual and 
influential people. Few wives of cabinet officers ever 
dropped into official society in Washington more naturally 
or more gracefully than did the wife of the Secretary of War 
in 1876. 

Twenty-five years after the above event, the couple cele- 
brated their silver wedding. 

The following account of it is from the Cincinnati Gazette 
of December 27th, 1878: 

" Judge Taft's Silver Wedding 

" Judge Taft and wife celebrated the twenty-fifth anni- 
versary of their marriage last evening. About 100 of their 
friends, persons in middle or advanced life, were gathered, 
together in their pleasant parlors on Mt. Auburn. Two 



120 ALPHO^SO TAFT 

sisters of Mrs. Taft were present, and the venerable Mrs. 
N'athaniel Sa-wyer, now in her eighty-eighth year, the oldest 
guest present, was excelled by few in the sprightliness of 
her movements and by none in the genuine interest which 
she took in the occasion. 

" The gathering was delightfully informal. Most of those 
present were well acquainted with each other, as well as with 
their hosts, the majority being residents of Mt. Auburn. 
The rooms had been appropriately and tastefully decorated 
for the occasion. Over tlie chimneys in the parlor were the 
dates 1853 and 1878, in letters of evergreen. A magnificent 
bank of white flowers, roses, camellias, etc., interspersed with 
green leaves, and with the above dates in blue flowers, was 
placed over the door in the hall. It was the gift of Col. 
and Mrs. Dayton. The presents from the near family and 
friends were in some cases very elegant, and in all appro- 
priate. There was no general compliance with the idea that 
a silver wedding must be commemorated in offerings of 
silver. A clock and a pair of candle sticks, presented by 
Mrs. Taft's sisters; a silver horseshoe, the gift of Maj. Lloyd, 
Judge Taft's law partner; a shawl pin in the form of a 
minute quiver and arrows, from John A. Gano, and two or 
three small articles were of the same metal. On the other 
hand, a splendid vase of royal Satsuma ware was the present 
of Mrs. Charles P. Taft; a large and magnificent vase of 
black Widow Ipsen ware, the flowers with which it was orna- 
mented, apparently sparkling with dew drops, was given by 
Mr. and Mrs. Aaron F. Perry, while there were a vase and 
several plaques of cloisonne enamel on porcelain and on cop- 
per, and a bronze japanned incense box, were sent by rela- 
tives from San Francisco, who could not personally attend. 
Mrs. Judge Whitman presented an exquisite plaque adorned 
with a flower piece, and Mrs. A. J. Howe a Worcester jug. 
" There were other gifts which we cannot distinctly re- 
member. The most pleasant feature of them all was the 
obvious good feeling and friendship which accompanied their 
bestowal. The gathering, as we have said, was wholly in- 
formal, and the obvious refle<;tion which it inspired was that, 



MARRIAGE TO LOUISE TORREY 121 

while thousands know Judge Taft as the professional and 
public man, there are hundreds who thoroughly appreciate 
him as a neighbor and a friend." 

When he was nearly fifty years old Judge Taft, then a 
lawyer with a large practice, acquired a knowledge of short- 
hand and became proficient in its use. Isaac Pitman of 
England had developed a system of stenography, and his 
book was published in this country. About this time his 
brother, Ben Pitman, came to America, bringing with him a 
knowledge of the new science. He tried his efforts on the 
people of iSTew York and Washington without making any 
headway. Franklin Pierce, while President of the United 
States, delivered an address which Ben Pitman accurately 
took down and offered a copy to the papers. But editors 
did not have faith in its accuracy and refused to use it. He 
then went to Cincinnati and early made the acquaintance of 
Judge Taft who was already studying one of Isaac Pitman's 
books, and he became Ben's first pupil. Ben Pitman, after 
founding the Pitman School and instructing in it for years, 
gave up this work and devoted himself to lecturing on art 
and to developing a system of engraving on copper plates. 
On the occasion of Judge Taft's return from Russia in 1885, 
Ben Pitman told his art class of his early acquaintance with 
the returning envoy and of the great aid this friend had been 
to him during his early struggles in Cincinnati. 

In religion Judge Taft's father and mother were Baptists 
and his sympathies were with that church which he attended 
until after leaving New Haven. However, his studies led 
him to the Unitarian faith, and when a church of that de- 
nomination was started in Cincinnati he joined it. This 
was a courageous course, for at that time to be a Unitarian 
could not in any w^ay advance his material interests. In some 
legal contests over church property, he had to testify as to 
the Unitarian faith and his own belief in it. This he did 
with a clearness and steadfastness characteristic of the man. 

His hobbies and recreations were his love of Rom,an an- 
tiquities and his interest in astronomy and rifle shooting. 
He had a good telescope that he used with interest and 



122 ALPHONSO TAFT 

pleasure and tkat contributed to tlie entertainment and in- 
struction of his family. About the time the Civil War 
began there was a great revival of interest in the rifle, and 
he secured a good gun and became fairly expert in its use. 
His rifle and his telescope afforded him recreation and diver- 
sion for many years, and he never lost interest in them. 



CHAPTER XIII 

Cicero and Caesar — A Paper that Replied to the 
Work on Roman History by Napoleon III — The 
Orator and Warrior Compared. 

In 1868 Napoleon III, tJien in the height of his power 
and popularity, wrote a life of Caesar in which he drew 
comparison between the greatness of the famous warrior and 
that of Cicero, the orator; and naturally the comparisons 
were all to the advantage of Caesar. The work was a pro- 
fuse and exhaustive one, illustrated by maps, and it traced 
with fidelity and minuteness the entire career of the greatest 
of Roman warriors. And through it ran a vein of deprecia- 
tion of Cicero, the orator and statesman. Scholars of the 
world read it with deep concern, for the work was one of 
great thoroughness and commanded interest on its merits 
as well as by reason of its royal authorship. 

Each year there was hope among lovers of the classics 
that" someone able to do so would prepare a defense of Cicero ; 
but no defender of the world's famous orator appeared until 
1878, when Judge Taft wrote for The University a sketch 
of Cicero, embracing, in fact, though not mentioned by him 
as such, a reply to the work of Napoleon III. It traced 
with accuracy and fidelity the life of Cicero and depicted 
with fairness and force his usefulness to the Republic; and 
his contribution not only to the age in which he lived but to 
all ages and all peoples. Not even the talks of Dr. Barton 
with Henry Arlington, as given by Professor Anthon, so 
familiar to every school boy, are half as pleasing or half as 
enlightening as this paper by Judge Taft. It was read by 
scholars the world over and today is preserved as one of the 
great contributions of modem times to the lore of classic 
Rome. The concluding paragraphs are here reproduced 
because they so clearly indicate the strength and beauty of 
the paper and because they embody such an important phase 
of the comparisons which the author so graphically draws: 



124 ALPHOA^SO TAFT 

" I have remarked that the fashion of exalting the char- 
acter and example of Caesar has been and is now accom- 
panied as a fitting counterpart, with a contemptuous dis- 
paragement of Cicero, and a depreciation of all the great 
patriots and lovers of the Republic. 

" I shall not attempt to defend these renowned and worthy 
men who bore a true allegiance to their father's republic, 
but will say a word for Cicero. Froude, and the whole tribe 
of detractors of the Roman Republicans, express great sur- 
prise and astonishment that Cicero did not avail himself of 
the friendship of Caesar, and that he should follow the des- 
perate fortunes of Pompey. These critics fail altogether to 
appreciate the principle of patriotism which controlled him. 

" He had been born under the Republic ; he had borne its 
highest honors ; he could not make up his mind to place the 
people of Rome and his peers of the aristocracy at the mercy 
of one man. Hence, though indications were that Caesar's 
scheme for overthrowing the Republic would be successful, 
he took the other side and adhered to the Republic as long 
as there was a Republic, and incurred the danger of resist- 
ance to Caesar's usurpation as long as resistance was possible. 

" This is the fairest and most probable theory on which 
to explain the hesitating course of Cicero in those perilous 
times. Caesar made him a visit in order to gain him over 
to his cause, or at least to induce him to stay at home and 
not give his countenance to Pompey and the Republican 
party. 

" The old orator and statesman hesitated, it is true, but 
finally adhered to the party of the Republic, then represented 
by Pompey at the head of its army. Cicero was disgusted 
with the want of energy and organization on the republican 
side and predicted disaster. But his views of his duty as a 
patriot held him to the support of his government. He con- 
cluded that, if it must be overturned, it should not be by 
his assistance, or with his consent. He remembered Cato 
and Brutus, and his patriotic peers of the Senate, and could 
not with honor abandon them in the hour of supreme peril. 
Such was his conclusion on the subject. Froude and his 



CICERO AND CAESAR 125 

followers have not at all appreciated the sentiment of patri- 
otism in this case, bnt insist that he made a weak mistake 
bv adhering to the fortunes of the Republic against the 
power of the usurper, and declare that if he had joined 
Caesar his lot under the Empire would have been far better. 
They even talk of him as wanting in gratitude to Caesar 
for his proffers of friendship, as well as in good judgment 
for choosing the weaker side. Success sanctifies the wicked- 
est plots in the minds of many historians and politicians. 

^' But leaving this crisis in the life of Cicero, let us con- 
sider for a moment his character as a scholar, an orator, and 
a man. The same unjust spirit which condemns his con- 
duct as a statesman and politician, depreciates his character 
in all other respects. Instead of ignoring his innocent 
vanity, which belonged as much to the taste of his age as to 
any peculiarity of himself, they magnify and continually 
dwell upon his allusions to his own achievements as evidence 
of extraordinary weakness, and ignore their achievements 
themselves and the immense services rendered by him to the 
world. 

^' His ambition was great and honorable and successful. 
His purposes were peaceful. It was no part of his purpose 
to slay with the sword or to domineer over the nation with 
arms. He was not willing to advance his individual power 
by the destruction of the Republic. His ambition was to 
cultivate his natural powers of intellect, to enrich his his- 
torical knowledge, to make his oratory superior to that of 
any of his contemporaries, to enlarge his study of philosophy, 
embracing all that the Greeks had learned and taught, and 
to popularize and illustrate the system so as to bring it 
within tlie reach of Roman readers and of posterity, and in 
all things to consult the interests of Rome. He was studious 
beyond all competition, acquiring all the knowledge of his 
time. He wrote incessantly. His labors in his correspond- 
ence, in his philosophic works, and in his oratory, have never 
been paralleled. He was qualified to discuss the greatest 
causes, national and international, and the greatest parlia- 
mentary questions of the most thrilling time in Roman his- 



126 ALPHOXSO TAFT 

tory. He perfected the Latin language. His orations and 
a vast number of his letters, as well as his philosophical 
works, have come down to us through all the tyranny of the 
Empire and the ignorance of the dark ages. It would be 
well, before attempting to disparage the orator and writer, 
to consider what a hopeless chasm would be left in our 
knowledge of Kepublican and Imperial Rome if the life and 
works of Cicero were blotted out. There is no name which 
compares with his in the civil history of his country. Cae- 
sar is praised as eloquent, as scholarly; but when the com- 
parison is made with Cicero it requires all the prestige of 
his military career to give it any countenance whatever. 
On the other hand, numerous letters of Cicero of the most 
private and confidential character have been preserved, so 
that all his temporary errors and opinions and mistakes and 
discouragements are brought in review before the critics 
who live upon the peccadilloes of greater men. 

" Without discussing this fruitful subject further, I am 
willing to avow that my sympathies are strongly with the 
Roman orator, philosopher and statesman, and I trust that 
the time is not far off when the military usurpation which 
overturned the institutions of the great Republic and made 
Caesar a despot with the learning and eloquence of Rome at 
his feet, shall be estimated at its true value, and the great 
attainments and lofty talents of Cicero shall rise to their 
place in the scale of humanity and human history. 

" I have not seen the Life of Cicero, just published by 
Anthony Trollope, which, I understand is in a widely dif- 
ferent vein from that of Froude and others to which I have 
alluded. I trust that it will do much towards changing the 
course of public thought on this interesting subject." 



CHAPTER XIV 

As Judge and Lawyer — Some of the Great Cases He 
Tried — The McMiken Case — The Bible in the 
Public Schools — Political Activities — Residence 
Burned — Death of His Father. 

Many of the great cases tried by and before Judge Taft 
possess little public interest. They frequently involved very 
large sums of money and seemed to develop important prin- 
ciples of law, but possessed little general concern at the time 
and would have less now. One of the greatest cases tried 
by him was for the city of Jeifersonville, Indiana, and was 
known to lawyers all over the country as '' the great Jeifer- 
sonville case." It settled principles of corporation and mu- 
nicipal law that have been accepted ever since. 

The case that was of greatest direct interest to the people 
of Cincinnati was known as the McMiken case. Charles 
McMiken bequeathed to the city of Cincinnati, for educa- 
tional purposes, an immense amount of property. It was 
estimated at the time at about $500,000, but increased in 
value fast. ■ The validity of the will was attacked by distant 
relatives of McMiken, and Judge Taft was employed to de- 
fend the interests of the city. The case, after being tried 
in the lower courts, finally reached the supreme court of 
the United States, and was argued by Thomas Ewing in 
behalf of the contestants, but Judge Taft was uniformly 
successful in maintaining the bequest. The case in many 
respects involved the same points as those in the famous 
Girard College case in which Daniel Webster appeared. 
The learning and ability displayed by Mr. Taft in the prep- 
aration of his brief and in the arguments in the case which 
involved a laborious examination of the subject of religious 
and eleemosynary trusts under the statute of the 43 Eliza- 
beth, called forth from the bench expressions of high appre- 
ciation. The opinion of the Court sustained the validity of 
the gift of McMiken and was an important victory for the 



128 ALPHOTs^SO TAFT 

( 
city of Cincinnati. Mr. Webster took a deep interest m 
the McMiken case not only from his personal regard for 
Judge Taft but because of his intimate knowledge and deep 
research into many of the points involved. When the case 
was finally decided in favor of the city, Mr. Webster sent a 
letter of congratulation to Judge Taft on the result that 
meant as much for the city of Cincinnati and settled so 
many questions of deep interest to lawyers all over the 
country. 

Perhaps the most important case before him as Judge of 
the Superior Court was that of "" The Bible in Public 
Schools." The Catholics and Jews, who formed a large pro- 
portion of the citizens of Cincinnati, complained of the in- 
troduction of religious instruction in the schools as violating 
the spirit of the Constitution, and doing them an injustice. 
The school board stopped the reading of the Bible in the 
schools. The case was appealed on the ground that the 
board had no power to take such a step. A violent contest 
arose on the question. Feeling ran high, and it was evident 
that the judge who dared face the storm must incur great 
unpopularity. To Judge Taft, however, there seemed abso 
lutely no question of the right of the school board to take 
such action. His mind clear on that point, it was not in 
the nature of the man to consider for a moment popular 
clamor, or the eifect of the decision on his own career. The 
other two judges decided against the school board. Judge 
Taft delivered an elaborate dissenting opinion. When the 
case was taken to the Supreme Court of Ohio, this opinion 
was sustained in every point by a unanimous court of five 
judges, and has since become the law throughout the United 
States. " The Bible in the Public Schools " case arose in 
his path several times later and probably prevented his being 
Governor of Ohio. When, however, the storm of prejudice 
and bigotry had subsided and people had time to consider 
the matter, Judge Taft's reputation as a judge who knew 
neither fear nor favor was greatly increased. 

One of his marked characteristics was his willingness and 
anxiety to hear all sides of a proposition. Having heard 



AS JUDGE AND LAWYER 129 

his client lie would frequently ask, " 'Now what do the other 
fellows say ? " And every possible effort would be made to 
learn all about the position and claims of the other side. 
He was a delightful man to work with because he favored 
conferences and was always anxious to have the views of 
others. One day while he was in conference with his 
associates, he wrote on a scrap of paper, " Reading malc- 
eth a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact 
man." Lord Bacon never had a more worthy disciple than 
was to be seen in this Ohio lawyer. 

He had associated with him as partners at different times 
in his career of thirty-four years at the Bar, Thomas M. 
Key, William M. Dickinson, Patrick Mallon, Aaron F. 
Perry, George R. Sage, his sons, Charles P. and Peter R. 
Taft, and H. P. Lloyd. Mr. Key first entered Mr. Taft's 
office as a law student in 1842 ; Mr. Perry had been his class- 
mate at the Yale Law School. The partnership with Maj. 
H. P. Lloyd began in 1877, after Mr. Taft returned from 
Washington, and continued until April, 1882, when he went 
abroad. 

Judge Taft's interest in politics began early. Besides 
being a delegate to the first Republican national convention 
in 1856, when John C. Fremont was nominated for the 
presidency, the same year he was a candidate for Congress 
against George H. Pendleton, but was defeated. 

Judge Taft was one of the projectors and the first presi- 
dent of the Mt. Auburn street railroad to connect the beau- 
tiful hill suburbs with the city of Cincinnati itself. This 
was the railroad from which sprung the incline plane sys- 
tem, and the extensive net-works of suburban street railways, 
which is such a prominent feature of the city's life today. 

He was a trustee of the University of Cincinnati from 
its foundation. He served as a member of the Yale Cor- 
poration, which looks after the material affairs of the Uni- 
versity, from 1872 until he went abroad in 1882. In 1887 
Yale conferred upon him the degree of LL.D. 

He never faltered in the love he bore to his native Ver- 



130 ALPHONSO TAFT 

mont and in seriousness or in his subtle humor he always 
had a good word for the Green Mountain state. 

In 1844 the Millerite furore swept over the country, 
causing great excitement and giving some people serious 
worry and anxiety. A biblical zealot named Miller an- 
nounced that he had figured out the time that the world 
would come to an end, and that this would occur between 
March 23, 1843, and March 23, 1844. Finally the end of 
this terrestrial sphere was set for the latter date. Kev. 
Miller lived at Poultney, Vt., and his propaganda was issued 
from that place. Thousands of followers helped spread the 
doctrine, and in nearly all parts of the country meetings 
were held and prayers oiTered almost daily. Being from 
Vermont and having incidentally mentioned that he had 
met Rev. Miller, Judge Taft was constantly besought with 
inquiries as to what he thought was going to happen. While 
insisting that Miller was an honest and sincere man, believ- 
ing every word that he uttered, the young Vermonter evi- 
dently was not much disturbed by the prevailing excitement. 
To one group of inquirers, he said with apparent serious- 
ness: "I cannot help admitting that anything emanating 
from Vermont is entitled to respectful consideration." 

But the day set for ending the world passed without seri- 
ous incidents of any kind. A few faithful followers clad 
in white robes repaired to Mount Auburn to be translated ; 
but nothing happened to them except that their garments 
were sprinkled and their bodies chilled by a cold March rain. 
Rev. Miller announced that he had made an error of 1,000 
years in his calculations, and the Vermont excitement that 
had shaken the world passed away. 

Judge Taft's residence at Mt, Auburn was destroyed by 
fire in April, 1877. This account of the fire appeared in 
the Cincinnati Commercial on the morning after the fire: 

" A few moments before six o'clock yesterday morning 
flames were discovered issuing from the roof of Judge Taft's 
house on Auburn street, below Southern avenue, Mt. Auburn. 
The fire was discovered by a servant girl who lives in the 
family of Mr. Burkhardt whose residence adjoins the Taft 



AS JUDGE AND LAWYER 131 

mansion, and she called the attention of a policeman to it. 
He aroused the inmates of the house, and then turned in an 
alarm from box 85. Through some mistake of the operator 
at the Central Station, the alarm was sounded 75, and this 
sent the engines to Eighth and Accommodation streets, and 
by the time the error was rectified and the firemen had 
arrived on the scene the flames had made great headway. 
After the engines did get to work they made short work of 
the fire, but it was not extinguished until the roof of the 
house was burned off and the entire second story was gutted, 
leaving only the walls and chimney standing. The house 
was rented to Mrs. Wilbur, the widow of the late President 
Wilbur, of Wesleyan College, by Judge Taft before he went 
to Washington a little over a year ago, and he was waiting 
for her year to expire so that he could move back into it 
again. Meanwhile he and his family were stopping with 
Mrs. Handy, who lives hard by. Mrs. Wilbur's neighbors 
rallied promptly to her assistance and succeeded in rescuing 
all of her furniture without damage from the flames. Judge 
Taft's literary library and collections were in the house and 
were damaged some by water. The loss of the house is 
about $5,000, upon which there is an insurance of $10,000 
in the Washington Insurance Company, and an insurance 
of $5,000 upon the books and furniture in the Equitable." 
The death of Mr. Peter Rawson Taft occurred on January 
2, 1867, and is mentioned in the papers of the following day, 
This is the account in the Cincinnati Gazette: 

" Death of a Venerable Citizen 
" Peter Rawson Taft was bom on the 14th day of April, 
1785, at Uxbridge, Worcester county, Massachusetts. At 
14 years of age, he, with his father's family, removed to the 
then new State of Vermont, and settled in the town of 
Townsend, Windham County. There he labored on his 
father's farm a greater portion of his time, but improving 
the advantages of such common schools and academies as 
were accessible. He was studious and always fond of read- 
ing. As soon as he was of sufficient age he taught the 



132 ALPHONSO TAFT 

public school of Townsliend in the winter season, according 
to the custom of the county, and continued to do so for five 
or six years. 

" He also made himself a skillful surveyor, and for a time 
was extensively employed in that capacity. 

"At 25 he was married to Sylvia Howard of the same place, 
who has also died within the last year. They lived together 
about fifty-six years. 

'* They had but one child, Alphonso Taft, now one of the 
Judges of the Superior Court of Cincinnati, with whom they 
have resided at Cincinnati for the last twenty years or more. 
The active life of the deceased was mainly spent in Ver- 
mont. Without aspiring to high office, he was a good deal 
in public life. By annual elections and re-elections, he was 
many times a representative in the Vermont Legislature. 
He was four years Judge of the Probate Court, and also 
four years a Judge of the County Court in Windham County. 
He was extensively trusted, confided in, and consulted by 
his neighbors and fellow citizens of Windham county. He 
was universally regarded as a just and humane man, not 
grasping for gain, nor ambitious for office, but rendering 
much useful service for moderate compensation. 

" Books have been a great resource in his old age. His 
historical knowledge was extensive, and his familiarity with 
the Bible was truly remarkable. He has left to those friends 
and relatives who have survived him and who knew him 
best, a sweet and precious memory. He died about 4 o'clock 
A. M. of New Year's day." 



CHAPTER XV 

The Republican Convention that Nominated Lincoln 
— Judge Taft Sits with the Vermonters and They 
Break to the Man from Illinois. 

"With all the momentous consequences that followed the 
success of the Republican N"ational ticket in 1860, the mem- 
bers of the party throughout the country seemed to take no 
great interest in the convention that was to meet to nominate 
candidates for President and Vice-President of the United 
States to be voted for in the Fall. In the East the assump- 
tion was general that Gov. W. H. Seward of New York 
would be nominated. He had been so successful in manipu- 
lating national conventions for and against various candi- 
dates that it was felt that now that he was a candidate in 
real earnest he could not be beaten. Ohio sentiment was 
largely for Salmon P. Chase, and Abraham Lincoln of 
Illinois was a kind of receptive candidate. Asked if he 
was going to the convention, Mr. Lincoln replied by saying 
that he was not quite enough of a candidate to attend, but a 
little too much of a candidate to stay at home. The selec- 
tion of delegates from Cincinnati, his home city, was largely 
left to Mr. Chase. Judge Taft decided not to be a delegate, 
though strongly urged to do so. ' He threw his influence to 
Fred Hassureck, editor of the Volkshlat, and himself was 
selected as an alternate. At this stage Judge Taft was 
strongly suspected of favoring the nomination of Abraham 
Lincoln and of being a Chase man because of a neighborly 
and friendly feeling. He had not forgotten 1852 and was 
not hoping for the nomination of Gov. Seward. The con- 
vention this year met in Chicago and the Seward contingent 
was clearly out-manoeuvred. Mr. David Davis of Bloom- 
field, 111., afterwards U. S. Senator and Justice of the 
Supreme Court, had charge of the Lincoln campaign, and 
at his hands Gov. Seward met his first Waterloo. Being an 



134 ALPHONSO TAET 

alternate in the Ohio delegation and his principal being on 
hand, Judge Taft sat most of the time with the Vermonters. 
Every man in this delegation was his personal friend. 
Thurlow Weed was in charge of the Seward boom, and his 
confidence of success inspired those about him to believe 
that the New Yorker could not be defeated. Even the 
Chase men of the Ohio delegation were apprehensive of 
Seward's success. The night before the ballot. Judge Taft 
meeting Murat Halstead in the lobby of the hotel, asked 
him how it was going. Halstead replied: ''I have just 
sent this telegram to the Commercial: ' It is not possible for 
the opposition to Seward to concentrate. Looks as if the 
New Yorker wins.' " 

Mr. Halstead said that Mr. Greeley had sent the same 
telegram to the New York Tribune. 

But Mr. Davis was at work making promises, or the 
equivalent of promises. Mr. Lincoln had written, " Make 
no pledges that will bind me." Davis didn't, but he accom- 
plished the same result. To the Indianians, he said, " If 
you come to us I will support Caleb Smith for a Cabinet 
position." Two other intimations of this kind put things 
in shape. 

When the ballot was reached it resulted 173 for Seward, 
102 for Lincoln, 30^ for Cameron, 49 for Chase, 48 for 
Bates, and scattering 42. 

On the second ballot 184^ Lincoln, rest scattering. 
At this stage Vermont made the break by changing its 
vote from Seward to Lincoln and really made the nomina- 
tion. This change was quickly followed by Indiana, Penn- 
sylvania and Missouri that afterwards got Cabinet positions. 
The New York Tribune quoted a Seward manager as saying, 
" It was all we could do to hold Vermont by the most des- 
perate exertions." Weed held the rest of New England in 
the hollow of his hand. Judge Taft never claimed credit 
for helping in the nomination of Lincoln, but the Vermont 
folks vigorously claimed it for him. 

Judge Taft was undoubtedly much pleased with the result. 
He showed no exultation over the defeat of Seward j he was 



NOMINATION OF LINCOLN 135 

not the man to do that, but in the very nature of things he 
couldn't help seeing that the man who had defeated the 
Webster forces eight years before and was regarded as a 
master strategist in convention manipulation had been badly 
outgeneraled by David Davis. 

Besides this he greatly admired Mr. Lincoln, the nominee. 
He had carefully read the Lincoln-Douglas debates and ad- 
mired Mr. Lincoln's very able arguments and the beautiful 
but simple English in which they were clothed. He felt 
that this man was destined to make a great impress on the 
world, and that he would be elected this time. 

On reaching home he read the following account of the 
convention's last hours in the Cincinnati Times: " The 
Chicago convention, after a short and harmonious session, 
has issued its manifesto, and announced its standard bearers 
in the persons of Abe Lincoln of Illinois for President and 
Hannibal Hamlin of Maine for Vice-President. Thus the 
second ticket is in the field for the coming presidential con- 
test. One more has yet to be announced, and we may then 
consider that the program has been fully made out, and that 
it is time for the performance to begin. In the second scene 
the actors are Abraham Lincoln, well known in Illinois as 
' Abe ' Lincoln, a gentleman of warm friendship and many 
admirers in the State of which he has been a resident for 
many years. 

" He is a native of Hardin County, Ky., and is at the 
present writing about 51 years of age. At the outset of his 
political life Mr, Lincoln was a Whig and under that flag 
was elected to the Illinois Legislature. In 1846 he came 
forward into a more prominent position as a Member of 
Congress and remained there a quiet but conscientious mem- 
ber to the satisfaction of his constituents generally. In 
1854, however, Mr. Lincoln became a rather more important 
member of the Whig organization. Parties had not assumed 
a position when it was more especially necessary that repre- 
sentatives should particularly define just where they stood 
in regard to new issues then before the public, and the con- 
sequence was that Mr. Lincoln declared himself a Republican 



136 ALPHOiSrSO TAFT 

of a pseudo-conservative stripe in general, and an inveterate 
opponent of Stephen A. Douglas, the Democratic leader of 
the state in particular. He then was designated as the 
Republican candidate for the United States Senate, and he 
entered upon the duties of the cainpaign with a zeal that was 
creditable to him and beneficial to the cause to which he was 
engaged. Perhaps there was never a more heated political 
contest than the one referred to. In every portion of the 
State Mr. Lincoln met his opponent, and with a power espe- 
cially his own vindicated his opinions and rebutted the asser- 
tions of the title ' Little Giant,' as well as showing up the 
inconsistencies of his political life during a score of years 
in which he has been prominent before the public. The 
result of the contest is too well known to need a recital here. 
" In regard to the nomination of Mr. Lincoln at Chicago, 
we are inclined to suppose that had the convention been 
held anywhere else, save where the influence of his own 
state could be brought to bear by way of outside presence, 
it doubtless would never have been made. I^either are we 
inclined to consider him a representative man of the party, 
or to say the least, it is a question that will admit of con- 
siderable discussion. Judge Bates was the choice of the 
conservatives, and Seward of New York, the idol of the 
ultraist branch of Republicanism. From the first day of 
the convention it was evident that Seward had made won- 
derful exertions to obtain the nomination, and his opponents 
felt assured of the possibility of his defeat when the time for 
balloting came. Those who knew the man, however, were 
fearful of his hidden strength. They were not disappointed 
and the announcement that Governor Seward had 173^ on 
the first ballot was sufiicient to induce those who were op- 
posed to his nomination to cast their eyes about for a pre- 
ventive. Judge Bates, the choice of the conservatives, with 
his 48 votes, was to be considered nowhere. The prospect 
also was exceedingly good that on the second ballot Mr. 
Chase's supporters would go over bodily to the ISTew York 
senator, thereby throwing him within eleven votes of the 
nomination. The result, however, was that the conservatives 



NOMINATION OF LINCOLN 137 

rallied upon Lincoln, in order to defeat Mr. Seward, and on 
the third ballot nominated him in spite of the New York 
delegation. 

'' Hannibal Hamlin, the candidate for Vice-President, is 
a native of Maine, is of Democratic antecedents, and has 
for several terms represented a constituency of the Pine 
Tree State in both branches of the Congress. He is a man 
of talent, but was principally chosen by the convention 
because it was necessary that an Eastern man should be 
selected as a candidate for Vice-President. 

" The next feature in the political world will be the prob- 
able nomination of Stephen A. Douglas by the Democratic 
convention at Baltimore, June 18th. The challenge has 
been extended to the delegates to that body by the nomina- 
tion of Mr. Lincoln. Republicans have thrown down the 
gauntlet in behalf of its late champion in Illinois. The 
entire battle in that state is to be fought over again, but on a 
greater scale, and we are satisfied that the Democracy will 
introduce Mr. Douglas as their ' representative man ' 
whether in the present divided condition of the party he 
can be considered so or not. 

" In regard to the fitness of the candidates named or to 
be named for the presidency, we have but one opinion, that 
Mr. Lincoln, while perhaps something of a natural genius 
and less of an intellectual giant than Mr. Douglas, he has 
at the same time more of those sober and excellent qualities 
that constitute the real man, and more of that sterling char- 
acteristic that forms the patriotic statesman." 



CHAPTER XVI 

Beginning of the Civil War — Activities in Aid of the 
Soldiers and Victims of the War — The English 
Cotton Workers — Story of Sheridan's Ride. 

April 19th, 1861, the war broke out bj the Southerners 
firing on Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. Soon the 
country was aflame. 

Judge Taft had no hope of a very short war. He appre- 
ciated the enormity of the struggle and the intensity of the 
men engaged in it. He had been in close touch with old 
line Whigs like Robert Toombs and Alexander H. Stephens, 
and from them he had received a vivid impression of the 
unity and earnestness with which the Southern leaders had 
determined upon resistance to the Government. He did not 
expect that the mild, conciliatory and fair inaugural address 
of President Lincoln would have any effect in calming the 
boisterous condition of the Southern mind. So when the 
news came of the firing on Fort Sumter and the country 
went into a wild excitement, he invoked the public to stand 
by the President in all things, and he felt that the ne- 
cessity for standing by him would continue for a consid- 
erable time. He made addresses at public meetings and in 
every way encouraged war preparations which he held should 
be on an extensive scale and for a considerable length of 
time. He took no stock in the assurances that it would be 
all over in ninety days. His addresses were earnest, en- 
couraging and effective. His law practice was now very 
heavy, and he felt that it called for all of his time. 

However, Civil War activities were commanding and im- 
perative. The patriot was kept busy on all kinds of work 
to help along the Union cause. There were fairs to raise 
money for the sick and wounded soldiers, collections for this 
and other causes at every turn. In no place was the work 
more earnestly and more patriotically pursued than in Cin- 
cinnati. But in the Fall of 1862 came the most surprising 



140 ALPHONSO TAFT 

call of them all. The people of the cotton manufacturing 
cities of England were out of work because there was no 
raw material to be had. The mills had stocked up at the 
beginning of the trouble and were prepared for a six months' 
war. When the supply thus laid in became exhausted and 
no further material was available, the employees were first 
idle, then hungry, and by the fall were almost starving. 
Manchester, Lancaster, and dozens of surrounding cotton 
towns, were in a most deplorable condition. The cotton 
famine sufferers appealed to the people of England and 
were helped to the utmost. Then they turned their eyes 
toward America. America, torn asunder and stricken by 
war, was looked to for help. To people not well posted it 
seemed curious then, and to those who have never read of 
the conditions it seems startling now that peaceful England 
should be compelled to appeal to war-riven America to help 
feed these starving people. 

Mr. George Peabody, the American banker in England, 
had been the instrument of making the sale of U. S. bonds 
a great success in England. The bonds didn't seem to go. 
When Mr. Lincoln, at the instance of Millard Fillmore, 
appealed to Mr. Peabody, the great banker, merchant and 
philanthropist subscribed for a million dollars of bonds. 
That settled it. English bankers climbed over one another 
to get in on the American loan. 

The English people spent vast sums in helping the starv- 
ing cotton workers, and in the fall of 1862 George Peabody, 
who had visited the famine districts and personally witnessed 
the great suffering, sent an appeal to President Lincoln and 
through the President to his countrymen on this side for aid. 
He headed the subscription with $50,000 besides defraying 
a big share of the cost of transportation. 

President Lincoln was touched by the appeal and by the 
picture of distress as drawn by Mr. Peabody. In turn he 
appealed to the commercial bodies and leading citizens of 
this country. 

One of the methods adopted by President Lincoln was to 
send a hundred special letters to the most prominent citizens 



BEGINNING OF THE CIVIL WAE 141 

of the leading cities. Alphonso Taft, Thomas Spencer, 
Thomas Emery, William Proctor, R. M. Bishop and David 
Sinton were among those that received these special letters. 

Every commercial body and every individual was asked 
to help. 

Judge Taft, William Proctor and William Heidlebach 
called a citizens' meeting. Committees were appointed to 
co-operate with committees from the Chamber of Commerce 
and all went to work vigorously and successfully. Similar 
efforts were made in every city of the country, but none did 
better than Cincinnati. It was not money that the famine 
stricken people needed ; it was food, and they were getting 
food from the time of the first appeal. 

Many small donations were sent over during the summer 
and fall, but the cries for help grew more distressing, and 
at Christmas time the whole country was awake to the neces- 
sities of the idle and starving millhands of England, and 
donations poured in on every hand. 

" Let your Christmas gifts be to the starving millhands 
of England," was the cry. Judge Taft served on the com- 
mittee on transportation, and it was his duty to assist in 
getting the donations through to New York, where ships 
were waiting to take them to England. 

Late in January, the ship " Hope," deeply laden with 
provisions, started for Liverpool. She was soon followed 
by the ship "Griswold" and "Achilles" with similar freights 
— all the gifts of war-riven America to the famine sufferers 
of England. 

The first ship entered Liverpool harbor February 2nd 
and the others followed soon after. The supplies were re- 
ceived by the American Committee on Distribution, headed 
by Mr. Peabody, and were quickly distributed to the dis- 
tressed people. 

Over $1,800,000 worth of provisions were sent in the 
three ships, and this large amount, added to the work of 
the English committees, soon took the sharp edge off the 
appetites of the sufferers. 



142 ALPHONSO TAFT 

The cargo of one of the ships, the " Griswold," is given as 
consisting of 500 boxes of bacon, 500 barrels of pork, 5,000 
bushels of corn, 500 barrels and boxes of bread, a quantity 
of rice, and 13,236 barrels of flour. The contributions on 
board from the New York Produce Exchange were 1,500 
barrels of flour, 500 bushels of corn and 50 barrels of pork. 
The cargoes of the other ships are not given in detail. Cin- 
cinnati contributed in all 5,000 boxes of bacon and large 
quantities of pork, flour and hains. Most of these reached 
New York in time for the special steamers and the remain- 
der was sent through arrangement of the committee by regu- 
lar steamers to Liverpool. 

About this time there was earnest and continuous patri- 
otic activity in eiforts to sell Government bonds. The work 
was not done then as during our late war. Mr. Salmon P. 
Chase had been made Secretary of the Treasury and had 
accepted the position with no little reluctance. Just elected 
to the United States Senate for a full term of six years, he 
saw in the Senate career an opportunity much more attrac- 
tive than the job of financing a bankrupt treasury. But 
President Lincoln insisted on his accepting the place, and 
in February a meeting of a dozen or so friends of Mr. Chase 
was held in the office of Chase & Ball in Cincinnati to talk 
the matter over. Alphonso Taft, Ben Eggleston, Murat 
Halstead, Richard Smith, Henry D. Cooke, owner of Colum- 
bus, Ohio, State Journal, and Mr. Ball, were present. They 
all urged Mr. Chase to give up his senatorial career and take 
the place tendered him in the Cabinet, and he decided to 
do so. 

Accordingly, on the inauguration of President Lincoln, 
Mr. Chase became Secretary of the Treasury and soon found 
himself charged with the task of providing money for the 
war that broke out in April. 

Secretary Chase had a close connection with the Ohio 
State Jaurnal, of which Henry D. Cooke was owner and 
Wm. Dean Ho wells, the novelist, was the editor. Mr. Ho wells 
in a recent note says he believes Mr. Chase's relations with 
Henry D. Cooke were merely social and political. Jay 



BEGITsTNING OF THE CIVIL WAK 143 

Cooke, an eastern banker and brother of Henrj D. Cooke, 
had just been very snceessfnl in placing a loan for the State 
of Pennsylvania, so it naturally occurred to brother Henry 
that Jay was the man to place the loan for the United States 
Government. 

There had been much effort to raise money by treasury 
notes and short-time loans, but in 1862 Jay Cooke was made 
General Agent for placing Government bonds with authority 
to appoint sub-agents all over the country. 

And the work went on. Everything was done to develop 
enthusiasm and to cause people to buy bonds. Meetings 
were held with such men as Taft, Hoadley, Hollister and 
others making addresses, and every newspaper carried well- 
written advertisements making appeals for sale of the bonds. 

In the work of raising money for war benevolences, Mr. 
Taft was kept busy and was so successful that he was called 
upon at every turn. His friend Grafton, the artist, was 
frequently his aid and was always on hand and ready to 
contribute his labor and his artistic taste. It was on one 
of these occasions that literature was enriched by one of 
our great poems. 

There are many versions of the story of the writing of 
the poem, " Sheridan's Ride." All of them connect Judge 
Taft and Grafton, the artist, with promoting the effort. 

The truth seems to be that Judge Taft was at the head 
of a committee to raise funds for the returned soldiers. 
Grafton was helping him, as he usually did in such matters. 
Judge Taft and Grafton met T. Buchanan Read in front of 
a bookstore in which was displayed a picture showing Gen. 
Sheridan riding to the scene of the battle at Winchester. 
The incident had been described in the newspapers and was 
very familiar to the people. As the three looked at it, 
Grafton said to Read: " There is a fine subject; write a 
poem on it." Judge Taft added, " Yes, and read it at our 
soldiers' benefit next Thursday evening." 

The party separated, Taft and Grafton to go up to Pike's 
Opera House, where the entertainment was to be held, and 
Read to go home and write the poem. Read was then living 



144 ALPHONSO TAFT 

in Cincinnati. As a boj he had run away from his home 
in Pennsylvania and had come to the Queen City. In later 
life he had lived in London, Florence, Rome, Philadelphia, 
New York and Boston, but between times and between trades 
he usually vibrated back to Cincinnati. He was a poet, 
printer, tailor, cigarmaker and sign painter, and did not 
hesitate to take up any of these callings to keep things 
moving. Mr. David Sinton, Mr. Nicholas Longworth, Judge 
Taft and Miles Greenwood were accustomed to help him 
along when he got to Cincinnati. 

The occasion referred to was during one of his visits to 
the city and among the people he loved. Many theatrical 
stars had agreed to contribute to the entertainment in Pike's 
Opera House in which Jvidge Taft was so much interested, 
among them Mr. James Murdock, then in the zenith of his 
glory as a great actor. At the solicitation of Judge Taft, 
Murdock agreed to recite the poem which Reed should pro- 
duce. 

The night of the entertainment came and so did Read 
with " Sheridan's Ride." The announcement of a poem by 
T. Buchanan Read to be read by James E. Murdock served 
to help secure a packed house and a big sum for the benefit. 
The poem was finished too late for Mr. Murdock to commit 
it to memory, but he read it in a most thrilling manner from 
the original manuscript. 

All the managers of the benefit were delighted with the 
poem and with the fine results which it produced. It is 
further told that next day when they were rounding up the 
results, Judge Taft said to the poet : '' Now, Read, if you 
will make a drawing illustrating that poem I will give you 
$25 for it." 

Read accepted the offer promptly and collected on the 
spot, but at last accounts he had not furnished the drawing. 



CHAPTER XVII 

The Party Struggle of 1875 — Judge Taft Triumphant 
IN Defeat — His Great Efforts in Support of 
Hayes. 

The gubernatorial campaign of Ohio in the year 1876 
was one long remembered for its vigor, its unfairness and 
its malignity. But the actors have nearly all passed away 
and a rehearsal of the incidents would not now be either 
entertaining or instructive. 

But if it were written by Judge Taft's most violent 
opponent it could not contain a word uncomplimentary to 
him. He announced early that he would not be a candidate 
for the Republican nomination for Governor. The party 
was divided as to the kind of a platform the convention 
should adopt concerning the national administration. There 
was a strong element opposed to the Grant administration 
and this was showing itself in the county conventions for 
the selection of delegates. Judge Taft was a firm admin- 
istration man and had been vigorous in the expression of 
his opinions on the subject. But the party in all parts of 
the State turned to him as the most suitable candidate for 
the gubernatorial nomination. The assurance of success was 
not any too strong, but Grant men and those opposed to 
the administration believed that Judge Taft could carry the 
state, and without him as the candidate or his vigorous 
support of the one who should be nominated they doubted 
the possibility of success. The plan suggested was to name 
an unflinching friend of the administration as the candidate 
and then adopt a platform either condemning the adminis- 
tration or giving it a support so weak as to amount to the 
same thing. But Judge Taft would stand for no such 
arrangement. He was straightforward always and could not 
be induced to consider a nomination that carried with it 
a mere half-hearted support of the national administration. 
He believed that the party could win on a platform of 



146 ALPHONSO TAFT 

honest and vigorous support ; and that it had better be beaten 
than to win by subterfuge. He made this so clear that there 
could be no question of his determination in the matter. 

The campaign was fought with a vigor amounting almost 
to ferocity. Judge Taft continued to say that he would 
not accept a nomination on any such platform as they ap- 
peared determined to adopt. He asked that he be consid- 
ered out of the contest. But telegrams and letters came 
urging that he be the candidate, and many of them were 
from people who had always been his opponents and who 
were now known to be against the administration. 

The convention was a noisy one, and resulted in the nomi- 
nation of Gen. R. B. Hayes, who had said repeatedly that he 
would not accept a renomination if Judge Taft's name was 
presented. The old ^' Bible in the public schools " decision 
was worked to the utmost. Those who used it admitted that 
the decision was an able and honest one, and that it had been 
so declared by the Appellate Court, but said it might hurt 
him as a candidate. This old threadbare argument prob- 
ably turned the tables in favor of Hayes, and on motion of 
Mr. Charles P. Taft the nomination was made unanimous. 
All conceded that the success of Hayes depended entirely on 
how vigorous would be the support given him by Judge Taft 
and the uncomprising administration wing of the party. It 
was admitted that the Hayes campaign was hopeless without 
the support of the Grant element, and there seemed no way 
to bring these voters to the aid of the party but by the vigor- 
ous and determined efforts of Judge Taft. All knew that 
he would support the ticket. But they wanted more than 
this, much more — they wanted him to elect it. 

He had considered the situation with his usual care and 
had concluded that his duty lay in bending his efforts to the 
election of Hayes in spite of all that had gone before. And 
he did. 

He was invited to make a speech for Hayes at the Opera 
House in Columbus, Ohio. Everything to the party and to 
the opposition depended on that speech. If he lagged, if he 



THE PAETY STRUGGLE OF 1875 147 

showed indifference, if he failed to throw into the effort his 
old-time fire and energy, the cause of Hayes was lost. 

The speech was all that the most enthusiastic supporter 
of Hayes could desire. It was argumentative, logical and 
forceful. It was Taft in all his old-time power. It sounded 
the keynote to the campaign and marked Hayes as a winner. 
After rehearsing some of the achievements of the party, he 
said : 

'' But the work of the Republican party is not done. The 
remaining half of the debt is to be paid. The law for re- 
turning to specific payments is to be carried out in good 
faith, without inflation. And here at home, not to enumerate 
national objects, the Republican party is bound to see to it 
that our system of popular education receives no detriment. 
There are those who would divide the school fund. To any 
such measure the Republican party is unalterably opposed, 
and so am I, gentlemen, without any disrespect or any re- 
proach for those whose antecedents of birth and education 
may have tended to bias their opinions in favor of such a 
measure. I am opposed to it in every form in which it has 
been or can be suggested. 

" Popular education is the corner-stone of a republic. 
Ignorance is the most fruitful source of danger. Not only 
is it the parent of crime, but it deprives the ballot of its 
value, and it makes it even dangerous; and to remove igno- 
rance and replace it with intelligence is the first and most 
imperative duty of the State. In a free republic, the great, 
the divinely appointed means to accomplish that end is the 
common school system, supported by impartial, uniform 
taxation. To intrust any portion of the fund raised by 
taxing all to any church would be a palpable union of church 
and State — equally unwise and unconstitutional — and if the 
constitution were changed so as to permit it, every church 
would take its quota, if it could be ascertained, until each 
sect would be running a little school system of its own on 
the public funds. The unity and strength of the common 
schools would be broken, and the taxation for such a con- 
fusion and conflict of schools would no longer be borne. 



148 ALPHONSO TAFT 

" Without the common schools, liberty would be danger- 
ous and the ballot box would he dangerous. With them, we 
can safely have the broadest civil and political liberty, and 
unlimited suffrage. I trust that the time is not far distant 
when all the churches and all the people will acquiesce and 
rejoice in sustaining them, and that they who now would 
ask a division of the school fund will, sooner or later, yield 
to the genius of Republicanism, and be satisfied to give rer 
ligious instruction and enjoy religious worship in the family 
and in the Church, while the State, with sovereign impar- 
tiality, shall perform its great duty of making education 
universal, through the best system of common schools the 
world ever saw. 

" Having regard, then, to the destinies of our own great 
State and of the United States, as well as to the duty and 
character of the Republican party, ^ let our motto be, ' Uni- 
versal liberty, and universal suffrage, secured and made safe 
by universal education.' " 



CHAPTER XVIII 

Ferguson Recognizes the Ixdispexsable Aid Rexdered 
BY Taft in the Work of Securing the Southern 
Railroad — The Objections, Delays and Finai, 
Triumph. 

About the year 1885, some business and professional men 
occupying Pullman accommodations on a train from Chat- 
tanooga to Cincinnati, were invited by Mr. Alex Ferguson 
to spend a social evening with him in his private car attached 
to the train. It was a social evening, for Alex Ferguson 
was a genial and pleasing entertainer. During the evening, 
conversation naturally turned to the great work which Mr. 
Ferguson had done for Cincinnati in securing the construc- 
tion of the Southern Railroad. When his able and inde- 
fatigable services were mentioned as having been the efforts 
that made the great enterprise a success, Mr. Ferguson 
replied: "But there is Taft; don't forget Taft. Without 
him, or someone like him, there wouldn't have been any 
Southern Railway, at least not at this time." 

And looking at the intricacies, the obstructions and the 
efforts essential to the accomplishment of the work and the 
part taken by different individuals, one is inclined to accept 
the entire truth of Mr. Ferguson's statement. The neces- 
sity for a railroad to tap the South through Chattanooga 
was accepted by all. Fully appreciating that the natural 
empire of trade lay in this direction, clear-headed Cincinnati 
merchants early urged the improvement of existing means 
of communication. 

As far back as 1835, five years after the feasibility of 
steam locomotion had been demonstrated, a public meeting 
was held for the purpose of considering the subject of rail- 
way transportation between Cincinnati and the cities of the 
South Atlantic. 

An active part was taken in the agitation which, in the 
following year, secured the charter of the Cincinnati, Louis- 



150 ALPHONSO TAFT 

ville and Charleston Railroad. A memorable event in 
early municipal history was a wonderful illnmination of the 
city, amid falling snow, in February, 1836, in celebration of 
the grant of the right of way to this road by the Legislature 
of Kentucky. 

Cincinnati sent a strong delegation to " the great south- 
western railway convention " held in furtherance of the 
project in Knoxville, in the following July, at which dele- 
gates were present from Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, 
Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and North Carolina, and 
over which Governor Hayne presided. The proposed road 
was here endorsed and a route selected from Charleston, 
South Carolina, passing along the French road through 
Cumberland to Cincinnati. The Kentucky charter required 
the construction of branch roads from some point in the 
southern portion of the State to Maygville and Louisville. 
This burdensome condition delayed the commencement of 
work until the financial crash of 1837, when, under the gen- 
eral industrial and financial depression, the project, with 
all that it promised, was for the time abandoned. Agitation 
for a southern railroad was renewed at intervals in Cin- 
cinnati during the next fifteen years. A reaction against 
the state or any political subdivision of the state being in- 
terested in public improvements of any kind set in with 
the financial depression. 

The general situation was so ominous that the Constitu- 
tional Convention, which met in 1850, not only prohibited 
State aid of any kind to public works, but inserted by de- 
cisive vote of 78 to 16 the following clause in the new 
document : 

Aet. VIII, Sec. 6. " The General Assembly shall never 
authorize any county, city or township, by vote of its mem- 
bers, or otherwise, to become stockholders in any joint-stock 
company, corporation or association whatever, or to pay 
money for, or loan its credit to, or in aid of such company, 
corporation or association." 

The insertion of this clause definitely removed the possi- 



THE SOUTHERN EAILROAD 151 

bility of Cincinnati securing railroad connection by sub- 
scription to any private enterprise. 

The local necessity to improve means of communication 
with the South had grown to urgency. Commercial suprem- 
acy in the West and N'orthwest departed from Cincinnati 
with the inauguration of railroad transportation in the val- 
ley of the Mississippi. The area of trade was greatly en- 
larged, but the number of competing points more than pro- 
portionately increased. 

Just previous to the Civil War, efforts were made to 
stimulate private enterprise with an offer of a cash bonus 
to be raised by subscriptions. But the Civil War came on 
before anything was accomplished. During the war the 
necessity for the road was so obvious that at one time Presi- 
dent Lincoln sent a message to Congress urging its construc- 
tion. But the war over, nothing had been done, and Cin- 
cinnati continued to suffer. 

Just as the rich stream of immigration had been diverted 
from the valley of the Ohio to the fertile region of the North- 
west, so the new channels of trade, which the dawning revo- 
lution in means of transportation had indicated, were now 
permanent and predominant. By 1868, the general traffic 
of the North and West had passed from Cincinnati to the 
new cities of the Mississippi and the lakes, St. Louis, Chi- 
cago, Cleveland and Toledo. 

The only connection Cincinnati had with the South, aside 
from the all water route, was by the river to Louisville, 
thence by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, but as a 
means of transportation in competitive trade it was both 
indirect and inadequate. 

By 1868 the construction of an independent Southern 
railroad had passed from a matter of general expediency to 
one of commercial necessity. The subject was under con- 
stant discussion in Cincinnati, and various projects of more 
or less impracticability were proposed. 

To summarize, the situation was: Cincinnati and 
Louisville were active competitors for Southern trade. This 
trade was definitely established upon the basis of railroad 



152 ALPHONSO TAFT 

transportation. Cincinnati possessed no direct railroad to 
the South ; Louisville did. Louisville, in a word, threatened 
to displace Cincinnati as the chief distributing point of 
K'orthern manufactures to Southern consumers. 

Mr. W. S. Dickenson, a leading business man and a very- 
influential citizen, suggested the individual enterprise plan. 
There was nothing in the constitution prohibiting a city 
from lending its credit to an individual. The Dickenson 
plan was that an individual should undertake the work and 
the citv should lend its credit. The prohibition applied to 
corporations and not individuals. But the plan was not 
considered feasible. It was not believed that the securities 
could be sold under such a plan and the Dickenson scheme 
was turned down. 

At this stage there was depression but not discouragement. 
Professional men, business men, and all others interested in 
the salvation of Cincinnati were putting their heads together 
and looking for a way to solve the serious problem. Con- 
ferences were held, suggestions made and views compared. 
Among them was a little gathering at Greenwood Hall at- 
tended by A. E. Ferguson, David Sinton, Judge Taft, Philip 
Heidelbach, Miles Greenwood, William Hooper, K. M. 
Bishop, and a few others, irrepressible friends of the South- 
em road. Mr. Ferguson and Judge Taft discussed a new 
idea, and all the others caught at it with enthusiasm, as 
the two great lawyers said the matter seemed feasible and 
legal. It was this : the prohibition was against a city being 
a stockholder or lending her credit to a corporation, and not 
against accomplishing a public project out of her own means. 

Following this conference an act of the legislature was 
secured authorizing cities of the first class, when the city 
council so ordered, to take a vote on the question of building 
the railroad. If the decision was favorable, the Superior 
Court should appoint a board of five trustees. As Ferguson 
was the counsel and the guiding hand and Judge Taft the 
Superior Court judge, this group came pretty close to having 
things in their own hands. 



THE SOUTHERN RAILROAD 153 

The legislature and city council acted promptly and the 
election was favorable to the city building a road. Judge 
Taft then appointed as trustees under the act, A. E. Fer- 
guson, Richard M. Bishop, Miles Greenwood, William 
Hooper and Philip Heidlebach. After considerable opposi- 
tion from Louisville interests, the right of way was obtained 
through Kentucky and Tennessee. The bill giving the right 
of way was at first defeated by the Kentucky legislature. 
The arguments made against the enterprise aroused con- 
servative taxpayers to the dangers involved in an under- 
taking of such magnitude. 

An injunction which would test the constitutionality of 
the statute was asked, and after many preliminary steps 
Judge Alphonso Taft, on January 4th, 1871, rendered the 
decision affirming the constitutionality and validity of the 
laws providing for the city of Cincinnati building the South- 
em Railway and dismissed the application for an injunction. 
The decision was a most exhaustive one. After reviewing 
the history of the case Judge Taft declared : " Independent 
of constitutional limitations the construction of a railroad 
serving public interests is a proper purpose of municipal 
taxation." This decision was unanimously sustained by the 
Supreme Court of Ohio in December, 1871, Justice Scott 
presiding. With this decision to back them the bonds were 
saleable and the success of the great undertaking that saved 
the life of Cincinnati was assured. 

A well-posted writer says of the effect of building the 
Cincinnati Southern Railway : " The immediate influence 
of the Railway upon the distributive interest of Cincinnati 
was to open up a wider range of new territory, to provide 
prompter transportation and better shipping facilities, and 
to place freight rates upon a more equitable basis. Large 
sections of the South from which the city had before been 
cut off were practically thrown open by the traffic arrange- 
ments effected upon the completion of the railway, as here- 
inafter described. In addition, a wide region, undeveloped 
but rich in lumber and mineral wealth, was directly pene- 
trated. Manufacturing towns and mining settlements sprang 



154 ALPHONSO TAFT 

up along' the line of the road, and Chattanooga underwent 
transition from a village to a city. The development of this 
section, forced for awhile, but now proceeding along slower 
and more normal lines, had influenced the commercial in- 
terests of Cincinnati in marked, though indeterminate, 
degree. 

Immediately upon the opening of the railway, through 
tariff rates were established to Southern, Southeastern and 
Southwestern points as far as Havana and Texas ; a system 
of car exchanges with railroads penetrating the territory 
bounded by the Mississippi, the Gulf of Mexico and the 
Atlantic was arranged, and Cincinnati shipments placed 
without break of bulk or transfer in all southern markets. 
The absorption of the lessee company by one great trunk line 
and later association with a second, have enlarged these 
opportunities, and as far as access to southern territory by 
means of railroad transportation is concerned, the present 
facilities of Cincinnati shippers are unrivaled. 

After retiring from the bench. Judge Taft was himself 
appointed a trustee of the Cincinnati Southern Railway, a 
position which he held until he was named as Minister to 
Austria-Hungary. 



CHAPTER XIX 

Judge Taft, as Secretary of War, Succeeds Belknap — 
He and Mrs, Taft in Washington — Official Work 
AND Social Duties. 

In 1876 Judge Taft, busy with his law practice and with 
the many public and semi-public matters which so deeply 
concerned him, received an intimation that he would be 
called to a position in President Grant's cabinet. He was 
not highly pleased with the suggestion, for the place men- 
tioned was that of Secretary of War, one that had no great 
attraction for him. But the intimation becoming a call, he 
thought it best to accept, and he replied affirmatively to the 
invitation and was given the portfolio of war. 

At this time the country was wrought up to a high state 
of excitement over the alleged wrongdoing of former Secre- 
tary W. W. Belknap. The press opposed to the Grant ad- 
ministration and an antagonistic House of Representatives 
made the most of charges against Secretary Belknap, and 
in the House articles of impeachment against him were 
rushed through. It was claimed that in the appointment 
of post-traders he had been influenced by corrupt means. 
His friends held that Secretary Belknap was never guilty 
of any infraction of law or ethics, but was the victim of 
certain indiscretions of his family. To prevent further ex- 
ploitation of these charges, the secretary resigned after ar- 
ticles of impeachment had been found, but before they had 
been presented to the Senate. He claimed that as a private 
citizen he was not subject to trial by the Senate on the 
charges preferred against him as an official. A majority 
of the U. S. Senate agreed with this contention and acquitted 
him on the technicality of a want of jurisdiction. The 
public and the press were more vicious than ever, and more 
denunciatory of the Grant administration. In this condi- 
tion of the public mind, it was necessary to fill the office of 



156 ALPHONSO TAFT 

Secretary of War with a man of the highest standing, and 
of the most unquestioned ability and integrity. 

In this emergency President Grant turned to his friend, 
Judge Alphonso Taft, and invited him to accept the position. 
His gTeat ability as a lawyer, as well as his intimate connec- 
tion with large business enterprises, eminently fitted him for 
the place. But his law practice was at its height, and he did 
not feel that the duties would be to his taste. But the offer 
of the position was coupled with the intimation that he 
would likely be transferred soon to a position more in accord- 
ance with his inclination. He accepted the offer of the 
place and took office March 9th, 1876. The appointment 
was received with universal praise even by the papers and 
that part of the public that had been most critical of the 
Grant administration. 

There was no preliminary correspondence. The first 
positive information that Judge Taft had of his selection 
was contained in the dispatch on the next page. 

It is a remarkable fact that not a single newspaper in the 
country made an adverse criticism on the appointment. The 
choice was universally commended. 

An editorial letter in the Cincinnati Enquirer had this 
to say of the way the new Secretary of War took hold of the 
work of his position: 

" Soon after Secretary Taft took the portfolio of the War 
Department General Banning, Chairman of the Military 
Committee of the House, gave him a courteous invitation 
to revise the estimates of the War Department, in order to 
see whether any reduction of expense could be accomplished 
without detriment to the service. The invitation was hon- 
orable alike to both gentlemen. General Banning is on the 
best of terms with the secretary, they having been for a long 
time not only acquaintances but personal friends. The ref- 
erence indicates a desire on the part of General Banning to 
treat the matter fairly, keeping in view the two important 
objects of presei-ving the efficiency of the Army, and at the 
same time securing the utmost attainable economy in the 
expenditures. It is always pleasant to have the opportunity 



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158 ALPHOl^SO TAFT 

of praising a public servant, particularly if he be a political 
opponent, and I am sincerely glad to avail myself of the 
opportunity in this case. Secretary Taft has entered upon 
the work with his accustomed zeal and good judgment. He 
has submitted the estimates for revision to each head of 
Bureau and Commandant of Department, with instruction 
to cut down in every available part, so as to effect as much 
of a saving as practicable ; and he has been in daily consulta- 
tion with the General of the Anny, going over the whole 
army, going over the field. It is his intention to have a fair 
economy in the estimates and to hold each bureau and mili- 
tary district rigidly to the estimates in the disbursements 
of the funds. He tells me that the aggregate reduction will 
amount to at least five millions. General Sheridan figures 
a further reduction of three millions by the transfer of the 
Indian Bureau to the War Department. General Banning 
holds that a considerable saving may be properly made by 
consolidating the Commissary and Quartermaster Depart- 
ments, and he favors a large reduction of the staff proper, 
leaving the duties to be provided for by details of the line. 
'No doubt these are all legitimate objects of retrenchment 
without destroying the efiiciency of the service. 

" He is desirous of becoming acquainted with the promi- 
nent officers of the army and with the operation of the army 
system in its several details. It is pleasant to record an evi- 
dence of more than official interest displayed by a cabinet 
officer in his department. The old rule of letting things 
drift along will doubtless give place to a more rigid super- 
vision of the several public interests embraced under the 
general head of government. There is every reason to ex- 
pect that the Belknap exposure will be productive of good 
results so far as the War Department is concerned and will 
encourage those interested in government reform to ' pusli 
things.' " 

The Washington Chronicle said of the new Secretary of 
War: 

*' Alphonso Taft is one of the ripest scholars, ablest jurists 
and wisest men in the United States. Educated at Yale, 



AS SECRETARY OF WAR 159 

and early imbned with sound American principles, possess- 
ing a legal mind and great practical talent, the Judge has 
come up with the growth of our great State and her chief 
city, a thorough man in the proudest sense of the term. His 
acceptance of the Secretaryship inspires renewed confidence 
wherever he is known. If not the ablest man in the National 
Administration, he has no superior; and his counsels will 
be relied on, in behalf of economical and just government, 
honest dealings with all and the greatest efficiency in the de- 
partment especially under his charge. Personally Judge 
Taft, the new secretary, is pleasant and agreeable to all with 
whom he is brought in contact. Physically, he is a perfect 
specimen of manhood. He has a large, compact frame, is 
of commanding appearance, and his very presence inspires 
a beholder with respect and admiration. Though he is now 
65 years of age, his splendid physical appearance indicates 
many more years of usefulness yet to come." 

Correcting and straightening out the matters that had 
made so much trouble for the department of war and for the 
administration was one of the first acts of the new official. 
Secretary Taft determined that hereafter no post-trader- 
ships he given to any person except on the recommendation 
of the officers at the post applied for. 

Letters of commendation of this selection poured in upon 
Gen. Grant from every part of the country, one of the 
strongest being from Mr. Washington McLean of Cincinnati, 
a leading Democrat, but a warm personal friend of the 
President. 

General Badeau, in his excellent work " Grant in Peace," 
says that nearly every place in the Cabinet was filled by a 
man selected for his fitness, and generally accepted with 
reluctance. This was assuredly the case with Judge Taft. 
Judge Taft, on assuming his duties as Secretary of War, 
made his home at the old Ebbett House, then a headquarters 
for people connected with the army and War Department. 
His first duties were in connection with the tangles that 
had occurred during the previous incumbency. Secre- 
tary Robeson of the Navy, who had also held this office 



160 ALPHONSO TAFT 

for a short time after the Belknap resignation, did not make 
much effort toward grasping the work of the office. Judge 
Taft's efforts in the War Office were mainly directed to- 
wards the unraveling of these tangles. And he did this 
work so well that Gen, Grant, in May, decided to appoint 
him to the position of Attorney-General, to succeed Mr. 
Edwards Pierrpont who had been made Minister to England. 
He assumed the duties of Attorney-General May 22nd, and 
remained in that place until the end of Gen. Grant's admin- 
istration. 

He was pleased with the duties of his new position and 
especially admired Gen, Grant's orderly methodical way of 
transacting the affairs of the executive office. He found 
posted on the White House this notice: 

" The President has set apart the morning up to ten a. m. 
to attend to his private business, telegrams and official cor- 
respondence; from ten to twelve he will receive Senators 
and Members who may call, and after hearing them, such 
civilians as may call on general business. From 12 to three 
the President will attend to official business, and at three 
he will leave the public rooms in the White House and see 
no one thereafter on business or political matters. On Sun- 
days, no business is to be transacted, nor any visitors to be 
admitted to the Executive Mansion." 

The Washington correspondent to the (IsT. Y.) Graphic 
had this to say of the new Secretary of War and Mrs. Taft: 

" Mrs. Taft has assumed the duties of her new position 
as the wife of a Cabinet officer by being ' at home ' to visitors 
on Wednesdays. A week ago she held her first reception, 
assisted by the wife of Gen. Marcy. The Secretary of War 
and his wife were then at the Arlington, but this week they 
have removed to the Ebbett House, and Mrs. Taft received 
in her parlor at that hotel yesterday. She is a lady of dig- 
nified but courteous and even genial manners. There is a 
warmth in the grasp of her hand as she cordially welcomes 
a visitor which the expression of genuine sincerity in her 
face would lead one to expect. She is tall and has sufficient 
embonpoint to become her height. Her clear, ruddy, bru- 



AS SECRETARY OF WAR 161 

nette complexion, dark hair, and beaming dark eyes at once 
impress strangers favorably, and her conversation and man- 
ner confirm the pleasant impressions. Those who know her 
well tell me she is very intellectual and thoroughly con- 
versant with standard literature, and while she cannot be 
called ' literary ' in the usual acceptance of the term, her 
tastes incline her to literary pursuits and the society of 
cultured men and women. She has never been, so residents 
of Cincinnati tell me, what would be styled a ' society 
woman,' but has preferred home life and engaging in works 
of charity to giving or attending entertainments. I should 
imagine Mrs. Taft to be a woman who would conscientiously 
discharge to the best of her ability the duties of any station 
in which she might find herself. 

" Since her arrival in Washington she has not only ' re- 
ceived' on Wednesday, as she knew a Secretary's wife was 
expected to do, but she has made calls on the families of the 
Supreme Court judges — another obligation of the wife of a 
member of the Cabinet. She does not propose keeping 
house at present, though I understand every unrented house 
in Washington has been offered her, among the rest ' Castle 
Stewart.' Secretary and Mrs. Bristow entertained Secret 
tary and Mrs. Taft and other guests at dinner a few days 
ago. A lady given to pithy remarks says, ' Of all times this 
is the time when dinners and lunches should be given, because 
there is so much that is exciting to talk about.' " 

The Washington Chronicle had this to say of Mrs. Taft 
and Judge Taft : " Mrs. Taft, the wife of the new Attorney- 
General, is a lady of rare perceptive powers, of still rarer 
common sense — a woman whose mind is above petty rivalries 
and snobbish affectations. While possessing ample wealth 
she will not attempt foolish display, but the position she 
has been called to fill will be honored by this grand, pure, 
stately woman, who carries with her a dash of the old regime, 
and she will be welcomed by those who form the better class 
of Washington society. Judge Taft is a man of keen per- 
ceptions, also, and rare ability. There is a sparkle of humor 
in his bright, black eyes and a kindly look in his honest face. 



162 ALPHONSO TAFT 

He lias worked his way to success, and well does he deserve 
it Beginning at a low round of the ladder' of life, he has 
climbed slowly and surely up to a proud height. He says: 
' I have worked hard, made some money, lost some, spent 
some and have a moderate competency. But I am a work- 
ing man.' " 



CHAPTER XX 

As Attorney-General — The Disputed Presidency — 
Judge Taft Cooperates with J. Proctor Knott in 
Solving the Complication — Cries of Fraud. 

The duties of the Attorney-General, always exacting, but 
usually pleasant, were chiefly of routine nature, until presi- 
dential year brought up many new questions and presented 
many new complications in connection with the disputed 
presidency. The Democrats had as their candidate for 
President, Samuel J. Tilden, of New York, a man of great 
political experience and a shrewd lawyer. The Republicans 
had nominated R. B. Hayes, of Ohio. The election was 
one of the most hotly contested in the history of the country, 
and the result was a disputed presidency. As constituted at 
that time, it took 185 votes in the electoral college to give a 
majority. Tilden had 184 undisputed votes and Hayes 165. 
The votes in the states of Louisiana, South Carolina and 
Florida were contested, and tremendous excitement pre- 
vailed the country over, pending a settlement of these con- 
tests. Each of the three states where there were contests 
had a returning board, to which election boards of counties 
made returns on the votes cast. These boards had the right 
to canvass the county returns and to pass upon the legitimacy 
of the votes in any county. These returning boards were 
made up of two Republicans and one Democrat or three 
Republicans and two Democrats, as Republican administra- 
tions controlled the election machinery of these three states. 
Charges were made of frauds, and intended frauds by the 
managers of both political parties. In the midst of this 
tumult, Gen. Grant named a number of prominent men of 
each political party to go to the capitals of the states where 
the vote was in dispute and watch the count. 

This was done and these visiting statesmen gave advice, 
made suggestions, and in every way endeavored each to aid 
his own side. Many county votes were thrown out, and from 



164 ALPHONSO TAFT 

each state the majority " going behind the returns " gave 
the vote to Hayes and a minority report signed by the Demo- 
cratic member or members of the board taking the face of 
the returns as conchisive gave the vote to Tilden. Thus a 
majority and a minority report were sent to the President 
of the Senate from each of these three states. 

Here a new and serious question arose. The Republicans 
held that the President of the Senate had the right to ex- 
amine the reports and pass upon the matter of the validity 
of each. The Democrats denied this and said that in case 
of a disputed presidency it would be the duty of the House 
of Representatives to elect the President, by a vote of the 
states in Congress, as prescribed by the Constitution. As 
the House was Democratic, of course, it would elect Tilden. 
The more vociferous of the Democrats said, " Tilden is 
elected, and we will seat him." At this stage of the trouble 
and while the greatest excitement prevailed everywhere, J. 
Proctor Knott, a representative in Congress from Kentucky, 
brought to Judge Taft a bill embodying a plan for an elec- 
toral commission to have power to settle all questions arising 
out of the disputed presidency. Gen. Grant refused to 
endorse or condemn the plan, saying he was not a lawyer, 
and did not regard himself as capable of passing upon fine 
points of constitutional law, but he was in favor of some 
method that would settle the trouble and settle it right. 
Mr. Knott, as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the 
House of Representatives, and Judge Taft, as the chief 
law officer of the government, had many conferences. Mr. 
Knott said afterwards: " While Judge Taft was not entirely 
clear as to the constitutionality of the Electoral Commission, 
like General Grant he was anxious for some praistical solu- 
tion of the question that was agitating the nation." *■' 

The bill as prepared, and which finally became a law — 
the joint work of Judge Taft and Governor Knott — pro- 
vided for a commission to be made up of five Senators, five 
Representatives, and five Associate Judges of the Supreme 
Court of the United States. As the Senate was Republican, 
the five Senators were three Republicans and two Democrats, 



AS ATTORNEY-GENERAL 165 

and the House members were three Democrats and two Re- 
publicans. The strong point of the proposed law was, that 
it provided that all decisions made by a majority of the 
commission should stand unless reversed by a vote of both 
houses of Congress. 

The Senate named Geo. F. Edmunds, O. P. Morton, F. 
T. Frelinghuysen, T. B. Bayard, Francis Kieman, three 
Republicans and two Democrats. 

The House named H. B. Payne, Eppe Hunton, J. G. 
Abbott, J. A. Garfield, and G. F. Hoar, three Democrats 
and two Republicans. 

The Associate Judges of the U. S. Supreme Court were 
Samuel F. Miller, William Strong, Nathan Clifford, and 
Stephen J. Field; these four selected as the fifth, Justice 
Joseph J. Bradley. The justices stood three Republicans 
and two Democrats. The commission of fifteen was there- 
fore made up of eight Republicans and seven Democrats. 
All decisions on important matters were reached by a vote 
of eight to seven. 

The bill providing for the Commission was approved 
January 29th, and the commission at once commenced its 
work. It decided all the contested questions in favor of 
Hayes by a vote of 8 to 7 and Hayes was declared elected. 

In accordance with this decision General Hayes went to 
Washington to assume the office of President of the United 
States. But there was still great excitement and much 
anxiety. The Democratic masses accepted the result with 
sullenness, and there was still talk of seating Tilden. " He 
was elected and we will seat him," was tho cry continuously 
heard. The 4th of March came on Sunday that year. Gen- 
eral Grant invited Mr. Hayes to dine at the White House 
on Saturday, March 3rd. Chief Justice Chase, Mr. Fish, 
Secretary of State, and Attorney-General Taft were of the 
company. Mr. Hayes was asked if he would agree to be 
sworn in on Sunday, and as he declined Secretary Fish, 
Judge Taft and Chief Justice Chase went into the Red 
Room apart from the others, where the oath of office was 
administered to Mr. Hayes. Next day he relented in his 



166 ALPHONSO TAFT 

determination not to be sworn in on Sunday, and the oath 
was administered to him on the 4th day of March, as pro- 
vided in the Constitution. As he was sworn in on Monday 
in the usual way at the Capitol, he was the one President 
who took the oath of office three times. 

A disturbing complication came afterwards, when Mr. 
Hayes, as President, reviewed the votes cast in Louisiana, 
Florida and South Carolina, where the contesting Demo- 
cratic candidates for Governor that he recognized as elected, 
were voted for on the same ticket with Tilden electors, while 
the ones he turned down received practically the same votes 
as were cast for the Republican electors. This, of course, 
produced a condition most embarrassing to the men who 
had so vigorously and loyally supported his own claims to 
the presidency. The cry of fraud, which had been quieted 
by the decision of the electoral commission, broke out afresh, 
and was continued by opponents during the entire time of 
the Hayes administration and afterwards. 

In justification of the decision of President Hayes in 
recognizing the three Democratic candidates for governor in 
Florida, South Carolina and Louisiana as elected, his friends 
and supporters held that under the law of these states, while 
it was legal to go behind the returns in the case of a national 
election, no such power was vested in the returning boards 
in the case of elections for state officers. The decision and 
the arguments in support of it were far from convincing to 
the Eepublicans in the disputed states or to their friends in 
the north. 



CHAPTER XXI 

Judge Taft Appointed Minister to Austria-Hungary — 
Secures a Pleasant Residence in Vienna — Some- 
thing OF THE Customs of the People — Comments 
ON THE City and Its Surroundings. 

From the end of his term in the President's cabinet, on 
March 5th, 1876, to 1882, Judge Taft continued his law 
practice in Cincinnati with conspicuous success and with 
great pleasure to himself, for he loved the law and took 
constant delight in struggling with its knotty problems. He 
was uniformly successful in his trials because he seldom 
let a case get into court that he did not feel assured of 
steering to a successful climax. 

Early in 1882, it became known that President Arthur 
had determined to offer him the mission to Austria-Hungary. 
The Judge gave long consideration to the matter, for he had 
determined once more to keep out of politics and devote 
himself to the work of his profession. After President 
Arthur had settled on this appointment, some questions arose 
as to the requests of the Republican organization of Ohio 
for recognition and the places they would like to fill. To 
two Ohio newspaper men President Arthur said, " I have 
determined upon the selection of Judge Taft for the mission 
to Vienna. This is my personal appointment, and it has 
nothing to do with patronage to Ohio." And in April the 
appointment was announced and confirmed. Within a few 
weeks Judge Taft had so arranged his affairs as to permit 
his departure. With his family, he sailed for his new post 
and arrived in Vienna in early spring, at a time when that 
beautiful city of parks, foliage-fringed avenues and drives 
was in its most attractive array. 

A few days before his departure for Vienna his friends 
gave him a complimentary dinner at the Burnet House. 
Some two hundred were present, and the speakers were 
pleasing and reminiscent. Hon. A. F. Perry, in a delight- 



168 ALPHOXSO TAFT 

fill vein, told of their friendship extending over a period of 
some forty years, and said, '' We were two young lawyers 
from ISTew England who had settled here. One day Taft 
and I were comiparing our hopes and ambitions. He had 
made up his mind to keep out of politics and devote himself 
strictly to the practice of law. I hoped after some success 
in the law, to turn that to account and become a politician. 
Well, the forty years have elapsed. Taft has been a highly 
successful politician and I have practiced law." 

On reaching Vienna as the American Minister to the 
Court of Austria-Hungary, Judge Taft soon found himself 
and family established in a pleasant home. This is de- 
scribed as: A charming apartment in a large building situ- 
ated on the corner of Lothringer Strasse and Canovagasse. 
It included twenty-two rooms, of which there was a con- 
tinuous suite of six beautiful rooms overlooking Lothringer 
Strasse on the river Wien. The banks of this river are 
terraced down to the water, and are laid out in public 
gardens, small parks, and parterres of flowers. Two fine 
stone bridges span the river in this part of the city. Across 
the river are blocks of magnificent houses, two fine churches, 
and the Swartzenberg Palace. The building stands opposite 
the Conservatory of Music, and very near the art gallery 
where Marcott had his scores of paintings on exhibition, and 
not a minute's walk from the Ring Strasse, the grand prome- 
nade of Vienna. 

In another apartment in the same building lived the Min- 
ister of the Argentine Republica, South America. Many 
mistakes occurred in delivering messages, mail matter and 
telegrams to the two American ministers, which could only 
be avoided by the messenger asking the question of the door 
servant, "Is it the North American or the South American 
minister who lives here? " 

There was '^n.e peculiar custom prevailing here not met 
with elsewhere, that is, the payment of ten kreutzers — equal 
to four cents — to the house porter for opening the entrance 
door after ten o'clock at night, at which hour the street door 
is closed and locked. This is the porter's perquisite. Some 



AS MINISTER TO AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 169 

of the servants did not sleep in the building, and when they 
v/ere detained later than ten ocloek it was necessary to pay 
for their leaving one door and the entrance to their own. 
The sum amounts to sixteen cents, and this occurred almost 
nightly. The custom was to send a servant to accompany 
a visitor to street door to pay his exit in case the hour for 
closing the door has passed, and also to avoid the mistake of 
the porter collecting ten kreutzers from the outgoing visitor 
when it is intended that he shall not pay, as such exits are 
generally charged to the apartment. 

Vienna is a beautiful city ; the architecture of its build- 
ings is more elaborate and imposing than that of Paris. 
There are many magnificent palaces here occupied by 
branches of the royal family. The Ring Strasse, three miles 
in length, extends around the old city, is the principal ave- 
nue, and on it are some splendid buildings, many blocks of 
elegant apartment houses, the Folks Garten, the Stadt Park, 
and other beautiful uninclosed parks and gardens. There 
are six parallel rows of large chestnut trees along this avenue. 
There is a fine horseback track on one side of it, a wide 
carriageway and two fine promenades, besides the sidewalks 
on both sides. Also there are long stretches of green lawns 
with nimierous settees beneath the shade of the noble trees, 
and many fine cafes and enticing flower shops continue around 
the entire circle of the Ring Strasse. This is one of the 
most enjoyable promenades in Europe. The daily move- 
ment of regiments of military through it also adds much 
to the animation. 

A complimentary gTceting is in vogue here which one 
never sees practiced elsewhere. On entering a shop, the 
shopman ejaculates " Kuss die Hand," or I kiss your hand, 
and on leaving he repeats the same. The servants also use 
the same expression when they come into the presence of the 
master or the mistress of the house. Before retiring to 
their rooms at night, they observe this salutation. Hand- 
kissing in the morning is never forgotten. The coachman 
gets down from the box of the carriage to kiss the hand of 
the master and mistress, adding a hopeful word about the 



170 ALPHONSO TAFT 

weather if it be dark or rainy. The collecting-boy has the 
same handkissing salutation when he is paid a bill at the 
door, and the house servants never forget it when they receive 
always a polite salutation from those frequenting them. In- 
deed, as soon as you enter Vienna, you become aware that it 
is a place of extraordinary civilities. 

The family frequently attended the popular evening en- 
tertainments of Strauss's orchestra at the Folks Garden and 
the Royal Opera House. The opera began at seven and 
closed at ten o'clock, sensible hours. 

A writer tells graphically of the royal ball and says: 
*' The empress's toilet at the ball was simple and yet rich 
and beautiful. It was a composition of pearl-colored velvet 
and satin, and jewels of rubies and diamonds. The Crown 
Princess Stephanie is a charming young woman of twenty- 
one years, a lovely blonde with sparkling blue eyes and 
beautiful golden brown hair. Her toilette was of white 
satin, embroidered with silver thread. Her jewels were sap- 
phires and diamonds. 

" The ballroom was spacious and grand. It was bril- 
liantly illuminated with a double row of chandeliers, one 
above the other, in which were burning hundreds of wax 
candles. At one end of the room was a dais, or elevated 
platform, richly upholstered with crimson velvet and gilt 
trimmings, which the royal family occupied. Opposite the 
platform was a balcony where Strauss's orchestra of fifty 
musicians, directed by the famous composer, played delight- 
ful music. Around the room was an elevated platform about 
ten feet wide, which was filled with plants in blossom and 
in beautiful foliage banked up fifteen feet high. 

" The ladies' toilettes were magnificent, generally of pearl, 
white and delicate rose colors, these being the empress's 
favorite colors, the ladies observing her majesty's preference. 
There was a great variety and profusion of magnificent 
jewels displayed in their toilettes, which were generally of 
delicate shades of tulle, with only a few jewels, but lovely 
ribbons and flowers for ornamentation. 

" With so much beauty and brilliancy combined with the 



I 



AS MINISTER TO AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 171 

music, flowers and the flashing jewels, and, in addition, the 
diplomatic uniform of the different countries, richly em- 
broidered with gold and silver thread, the Hungarian court 
dress, which is composed of velvet, fur and precious stones, 
and the Austrian court and military uniforms — than which 
none can be more brilliant — it was indeed a fairy scene, 
and one long to be remembered. Invitations to the court 
balls are given for nine o'clock. The dancing begins at ten 
and at a quarter of an hour before midnight, when the em- 
peror and empress leave the ballroom, the guests depart 
immediately." 

On one occasion the family witnessed the ceremony of 
" feet washing " at the palace. This is an old religious 
custom, and has been continued from time immemorial; it 
has been done in Vienna by all the reigning sovereigns. 
His Majesty Francis Joseph had performed the rite for 
thirty-five years. The feet-washing is done in the presence 
of the court, the diplomatic corps and the nobility, and is 
accompanied with as much pomp as any court ceremony. 
It is now only observed in Austria and Spain. It was 
instituted by the church as an act of humiliation to be 
performed by the sovereigns in the presence of their sub- 
jects, and to inculcate the supremacy of the Church. 

The rite consists in the emperor pouring a little water 
over the right foot of twelve old men and then wiping them, 
the empress doing the same to twelve old women. The 
ceremony took place at eleven o'clock in the morning in the 
grand ceremonial hall of the palace. A long table, at which 
the twelve old men sat, was as handsome as for a dinner, 
and was near the entrance door. The emperor was assisted 
by the crown prince and several archdukes. The old people 
are selected from the poorest class. 

This year the oldest man was ninety-three years old, two were 
ninety-two, five were eighty-eight years of age and the others 
younger. Of the women chosen, there were eight ninety 
years old and all the others much younger. The old men 
were dressed in simple black, seventeenth century costume, 
and wore black silk stockings and wide, turned-down white 



172 ALPHONSO TAFT 

collars. They were led into the room by their relatives and 
friends and were placed in the seats by court officials, the 
oldest having the head of the table, and each one having the 
attendance of a special officer, the relatives and friends 
standing behind them. The table was strewn with rose 
leaves, and beneath were placed brown linen cushions for 
the feet of the old men to rest upon. 

At each plate were a half loaf of bread, a napkin, knife, 
a wooden spoon and fork, a wooden vase filled with flowers, 
a large white metal mug of wine, and a wooden tankard of 
beer. The emperor, in full uniform, came accompanied by 
his court officials in scarlet and gold uniform, bearing black 
trays, each containing four dishes of viands, and took their 
places opposite the old men who sat along one side of the 
long table. The emperor cleared the first tray and placed 
its dishes upon the table before the old man who had the 
seat of honor. The crown prince stood next and served the 
next old man in turn ; and thus each old man was served in 
like manner by a grand duke or some member of the Austrian 
nobility. After these trays were emptied, which was quickly 
done, the palace guard, in full uniform and wearing the 
bearskin high hats, entered, bearing trays, on each of which 
were four dishes, which were placed before the old men, as 
those of the first course, and the third course followed quickly 
the second ; the fourth and last course was the dessert, which 
included one dozen fine apples, a large piece of cheese, a 
sweet dish and a plate of shelled almonds. 

When the dinner was ended, although not a morsel had 
been eaten, the table was taken away, and each old man in 
turn presented his right foot, which in the meantime had 
been bared by his attending friend. Then a large golden 
tray, a golden pitcher, and a large napkin were brought, 
and the emperor knelt upon one knee and poured a little 
water over the old man's foot and wiped it, and in the same 
way he washed and wiped one foot of each of the twelve 
old men. He did not rise to an upright position until he 
had concluded the washing, he moving along the column 
upon one knee. The emperor then arose from his kneeling 



AS MINISTER TO AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 173 

posture, and the grand chamberlain ponred water over his 
hands, which the emperor wiped with a dry napkin, and the 
ceremony was finished. Then a court official brought in a 
large black tray with twelve small bags, with a long black 
cord attached to each bag, containing- thirty florins, which 
the emperor disposed of by placing a bag upon the neck of 
each of the old men. The empress performed precisely the 
same ceremony with the old women. At its conclusion the 
royal family left the hall. 

The wine cup of pewter and the pottery beer tankard 
were supposed to be cherished in the family of the old person 
who had been honored by the ceremony and feast, but they 
were glad to pass them on to anybody who would pay for 
them, and a member of Judge Taft's family has kept in 
the family as heirlooms, to be passed on to their children, 
two of these interesting relics of an era that has passed into 
history. 

And so the spring and summer passed. Judge Taft and 
family got well acquainted with Vienna and with the people 
of the circles in which they were thrown. They made 
friends on all sides and liked the people they met and the 
people liked them. The fall passed and the winter came 
with the entertainments, its social obligations, and its pleas- 
ures. Winter in Vienna was much the same as to climate 
as winter in Cincinnati. But as soon as snow fell it was 
swept up and shoveled into piles and carried away. This 
custom, so general in all large cities, was then new to Ameri- 
cans and was pleasing and interesting to visitors in Vienna. 
The residence of the American consul-general at Vienna and 
family formed a most agreeable place for the assembling of 
Americans. On Sunday evenings visitors were invited to 
take part in the singing of hymns at their house, a service 
to which the family had been accustomed for many years 
during their residence abroad. After the hour spent in 
singing, tea and pleasant conversation followed. Judge Taft 
acquired a fair knowledge of the German language after 
his appointment to Austria-Hungary and when he was well 
past seventy years old. 



CHAPTER XXII 

Minister Taft Handles the Question of Excluding 
American Imports — Some Further Descriptions 
OF the Beautiful City. 

The routine matters of office interested Judge Taft from 
the first and he gave his best efforts to solving the many 
questions that came before him and was generally able to 
do so to the satisfaction of all parties. His judicial tem- 
perament and knowledge made it possible for him to smooth 
out many difficulties with which American commercial men 
find themselves hampered. The biggest question that came 
up during his official residence in Vienna was that of the 
objections raised to the importation of American meats. 
The excellence of our products and the price at which they 
could be sold made the handlers of local meats extremely 
jealous of the inroads which the American importations were 
making. The same condition had arisen in Germany and 
was a matter of great concern to American exporters. The 
local agents in Vienna of our own dealers kept in close touch 
with the American minister. 

On November 28th, 1882, Mr. Taft wrote his government 
at Washington explaining the purpose of the Austrian gov- 
ernment to apply to all American meats the prohibition 
heretofore in operation with regard to pork. The health 
officer of Vienna had recommended the exclusion of all 
American meats and had indicated a great number of cases 
of illness caused by eating meat. The authorities sent out 
a circular letter containing quotations from the leading 
newspapers citing these cases of illness and warning people 
against the use of American meat. The importers of our 
meats were much excited over these doings and appealed 
to the American representative for his assistance. 

In mentioning to the State Department in Washington 
the absurdity of the position taken by the Austrian health 



176 ALPHONSO TAFT 

autJiorities, Mr. Taft wrote a letter containing a character- 
istic paragraph: 

" To ns who have so long lived on American meats with- 
out a thought of danger or any need of inspection, and who 
have had far more fears of being struck by lightning than 
of being made sick by eating American pork or beef, the 
idea of forbidding the importation of our beef and pork into 
European markets on sanitary grounds seems very absurd ; 
but there is evidently a great deal of pains being taken to 
create apprehensions among the people of danger from eating 
American meats." 

Judge Taft was able to show the authorities that all the 
cases of illness cited in the newspapers were caused from 
eating meats of animals slaughtered in Vienna and that not 
a single case of bad effects from eating American meat had 
occurred. 

Minister Taft made such vigorous protests, and followed 
these up with evidence so overwhelming, that not only was 
the Austrian threat to extend the prohibition order to Ameri- 
can beef not carried out, but the order against pork was 
relaxed. This vigorous fight in Austria was used with great 
advantage in other countries where the same objections had 
been raised against the importation of American meats. The 
fight opened soon after Judge Taft's arrival in Vienna and 
continued in various ways during most of his time at this 
post. His successful struggles in their behalf were highly 
appreciated by the exporters of American goods. 

The family, as well as Judge Taft himself, were most 
favorably impressed with the emperor and empress, whom 
they met socially soon after the minister had presented his 
credentials. The empress of Austria was a charming woman, 
and although a grandmother did not appear to be more than 
tJiirty years of age. 

It was then said that the Empress Elizabeth was the 
handsomest reigning sovereign. In figure she was tall, 
graceful and erect. She had the fresh coloring belonging 
to health, large expressive dark eyes, and magnificent soft 
brown hair. In manner she was affable and elegant. As 



QUESTIOIsT OF AMERICAN IMPORTS 177 

a friend she was known to be sympathetic and kind. The 
emperor was a man of genial manners, and with a pleasant 
word for everybody. He was a hard-working man, rising 
at five o'clock in the morning and by nine o'clock had al- 
ready ended his audience with his ministers. The empress 
was a most accomplished equestrienne, having in her stables 
five hundred white horses, the greater nimiber being carriage 
horses. Although the great sorrows of his long life had not 
come to him, the emperor was known as a man of cares, and 
his countenance and bearing indicated the sorrows that had 
already been his. 

Arriving at Vienna in the spring of the year the Tafts 
found the city in its most beautiful array. A letter describ- 
ing the Austrian capital at this season says: "Vienna is 
really lovely at this writing. The pink and white blossoms 
of the chestnut trees were bursting into bloom and the parks 
are already filled with the fragrance of the flowers. Our 
recent change of residence brings us within two minutes' 
walk of the Salon Cafe in the Stadt Park, where we go daily 
for our morning coffee. This is the finest park in Vienna. 
The cafe building is located nearly in the center of the 
grounds and is embowered by beautiful flowering trees. 
This morning we took our coffee in a bower of rosebuds just 
bursting into bloom and near a beautiful fountain. Here 
and there are lovely little nooks, sheltered by evergreens and 
pretty shrubbery; portieres of flowers artistically arranged, 
summer houses, shaded pavilions and settees and chairs are 
to be found everywhere. There is also in the park a large 
astronomical clock, which indicates the time at the different 
capitals in the world. 

" Generally there are a thousand people in the park from 
five o'clock in the afternoon until eight in the evening, 
taking their abendessen, or evening meal. On a fine Sunday 
afternoon there will be at least fifteen hundred there. 

" The Prater — Vienna's famous park and promenade — 
is also in its springtime beauty. The grand central avenue, 
the Noble Prater, as it is named, is three miles long and is 
as straight as an arrow and wide enough for six carriages 



178 ALPHONSO TAFT 

to go abreast. On one side of it is a tan-bark track for 
eqnestrians and also a broad sidewalk. On tiie other side 
is a wide avenue for pedestrians, shaded bj six rows of fine 
old chestnut trees. Then there are dozens of cafes along 
the avenue, where from this time until November may daily 
be heard fine orchestral music. In one of these cafes is an 
orchestra of twenty young women. The leader, a pretty 
young woman, handles her baton with as much sang-froid 
as a Strauss. ■ 

" The fashionable hours for the promenade are from three 
o'clock until five o'clock. The evening promenades are from 
six until eight o'clock. The Crown Princess Stephanie, ac- 
companied by a lady of honor, may be seen daily on the 
promenade when in town. She gracefully returns the salu- 
tations of the people ; and when the little two-year-old 
Princess Elizabeth is riding on the avenue she throws kisses 
Dn both sides of the drive as she goes by those who recog- 
nize her. On a fine Sunday a thousand carriages may be 
seen on the Prater, beside fifty thousand people roaming at 
pleasure through the park. 

" There is another avenue in the park called the Wurstel 
Prater, distinguishable from the !Moble Prater by the varied 
amusements it affords. Here are to be seen scores of cafes 
with fine orchestral music, merry-go-rounds, five-cent shows, 
comic gymnastic performances, bowling and shooting alleys, 
May-pole dancing and jugglers. There is also an attractive 
Hungarian vine-covered cafe, where there is a band of gypsy 
musicians. In the Wurstel Prater on a fine Sunday after- 
noon, fifty thousand people may be seen in family groups 
gathered around luncheons laid on the grass. 

^' This park was originally a deer park and hunting ground, 
the private property of the royal family. In 1776 the 
Emperor Joseph II presented it to the people of Vienna, 
who at once took kindly to it and have made it, in course of 
time, their own ' People's Park.' In all the surging mass 
of people in the Prater I have never heard any rough talking 
nor seen anything approaching rudeness. The Austrian 



QUESTION OF AMERICAN IMPORTS 179 

people are well behaved and seem never to forget their innate 
politeness." 

The Court ball of this season is described in a letter which 
says: 

'* It was a fine fete and more exclusive in invitations than 
the first ball. There were seven hundred and twenty guests 
in attendance. The grand entree in the ballroom took place 
at ten o'clock, and after two rounds of dancing supper was 
announced. The tables, seventy-two in all, were laid in a 
half dozen rooms, each table seating ten persons and presided 
over by some representative of royalty or nobility. The 
empress left the ballroom before the supper was announced 
and did not reappear. Supper being over, the emperor and 
the Crown Princess Stephanie led the way to the ballroom 
where the cotillion was danced, and at twelve o'clock the 
royal family left the ballroom and the company immediately 
dispersed. The floral decorations remained the same as at 
the first ball. I never saw such magnificent toilettes and 
such a profusion of jewels as there were displayed. The 
Polish, Bohemian, and Hungarian costumes of the govern- 
ment officials greatly enhanced the attractiveness of the 
spectacle. I saw ladies wearing jeweled necklaces of not 
less than seventy thousand dollars in value, and tiaras of 
diamonds exceeding that sum, besides bracelets, buckles and 
aigrettes of great beauty and cost. 

" The bo<^lice of one toilette was ornamented around the 
points with a dozen clusters of diamonds. The empress' 
dress was of cream-colored satin and embroidered with gold ; 
her jewels were emeralds and diamonds. The crown prin- 
cess' dress was of rose satin and velvet of same color, bro- 
caded with gold thread ; her jewels were pearls and diamonds. 
Many of the family jewels of the Viennese are almost price- 
less in value, if reckoned by the present prices. There are 
in many cases heirlooms and inheritances of several genera- 
tions with additions in each decade, so that the original cost 
of them is not to be compared with modern prices. In olden 
times the diamond was not appreciated as in these days and 
had not the same value. Precious stones were then only 



180 ALPHOXSO TAFT 

possessed by the families of royalty and nobility, and the 
demand for them was quite limited. In earlier days some 
of the old Austrian and Hungarian families had great pos- 
sessions and they obtained every fine gem that became mer- 
chantable in their countries. This is the explanation of the 
enormous collection of jewels in these countries. A very 
pretty and pleasing feature of the ball was the distribution 
of beautiful bonbonnieres to the guests when they departed 
from the ballroom. 

" A feature of the balls that seemed curious to us Ameri- 
cans was the custom of separating the dancers except when 
actually in the act of dancing, the kontessen, as all the young 
women of the aristocracy are called, standing in a bevy on 
one side of the room and the officers — for the men were all 
military — on the other. As the music started there would 
be a rush on the part of the men over to the crowd of girls 
standing with their mothers, a clicking together of heels, a 
bow, an arm thrust firmly around the waist of the countess 
who was literally carried whirling once around the ballroom 
only and delivered back into the hands of her chaperone. 
It was considered quite pointed if the young man dared to 
take two turns with her." 

March is described as the time of year for " Coffees," a 
German social custom. '^ They are largely in vogue with 
the Viennese. The fashionable hour for them is four o'clock 
in the afternoon. The ladies attending them always bring 
their work-bags. The guests are expected to arrive promptly 
at the hour named in the invitations. They remove their 
wraps, and pass an hour in conversation and work until 
coffee is announced. The guests are seated at a table which 
is prettily laid with choice china, bonbons and flowering 
plants sprinkled with perfumed water. 

" A delicious cup of coffee, a la Viennese, with thin slices 
of bread, plain cakes, fruit jellies and fruit creams, comprise 
the simple repast. Sometimes there are readings which oc- 
cupy an hour very agreeably before the coffee is announced. 
Very soon after the refreshments have been served, the 



QUESTION OF AMERICAN IMPORTS 181 

ladies separate with the parting words, ' auf wiedersehen,' 
or ' au revoir.' 

" Yesterday I visited an exhibition of spring flowers where 
there were four thousand beautiful hyacinths of every con- 
ceivable color and shade, besides hundreds of pots of lilies 
of the valley and as many more of jonquils and crocuses. 
The pots containing the flowers were embedded in soft green 
moss and arranged in a variety of forms. Some were placed 
one above the other to take the shape of pyramids ; others 
were placed together to make the form of crosses, crowns, 
circles, and other designs. Each design was composed of 
flowers of the same color. A flower show is held annually 
and is patronized by the royal family and nobility." 

The family continued to enjoy the opportunities which 
Vienna offered and Judge Taft to perform the duties of his 
position till the summer of 1884, when intimations came 
from the State Department that his services might be needed 
at another post, and these intimations were followed by his 
appointment in June as Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy 
Extraordinary to the Court of Russia. 

Circumstances had developed showing the need in St. 
Petersburg of the admirable qualities of diplomacy that had 
made him so useful in Vienna, On receiving the notifica- 
tion of this transfer which the State Department regarded 
as a promotion, the Taft family made arrangements for 
their departure and were on their way to the new scene of 
usefulness before the 1st of July. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

Arrives in Russia — Impressions of the Czar and Czar- 
ina — Complicated Questions of Citizenship — In- 
teresting Interview with the New York Tribune. 

Judge Taft, on being notified of the desire of the State 
Department at Washington that he be transferred to Russia, 
was told that some serious questions had arisen at St. Peters- 
burg which required the exercise of good judgment, keen 
perception, and a thorough knowledge of diplomatic prece- 
dents. In short, just such traits as he had shown in Vienna 
were now badlj needed in St. Petersburg. 

He did not learn definitely what the perplexing matters 
were until after his arrival in St. Petersburg, where he 
found a series of complications waiting to be untangled. 
These grew out of the old questions of expatriation and 
naturalization — questions that for ages had been discussed 
between governments but had never been settled. " Was a 
man always a subject who had been once a subject? " We 
had fought a war with Great Britain with this as one of the 
issues. And the war over we concluded a treaty that barely 
mentioned the important question but settled nothing. It 
merely concluded a gentleman's agreement that had stood 
for over a hundred years and probably had been as binding 
as any stipulation could have been. But it settled nothing, 
nor did it furnish a precedent for any of the questions that 
faced Judge Taft on assuming the duties of Minister Ex- 
traordinary and Envoy Plenipotentiary to Russia. 

The cases that were pending were of Jews born in Rus- 
sia, who had gone to the United States, resided there the 
necessary time, and had become naturalized citizens of the 
United States. Returning to Russia they claimed the rights, 
privileges and protection due to American citizens. The 
Russian authorities insisted that these people were Russians 
and imposed upon them the burdens and responsibilities of 
subjects of the Czar. In every case the party would appeal 
to the American consul for protection, and the matter was 
sure to reach our minister for adjudication. Russia at that 



184 ALPHOXSO TAFT 

time did not permit a Jew to become a professional man, 
nor conld he enter trade without a license from the govern- 
ment. 

These former subjects of the Czar having become Ameri- 
can citizens insisted that their newly acquired citizenship 
protected them against the onerous laws of their former ruler. 
In response to this the Russian authorities charged that a 
family would send one of its members to the United States 
to become naturalized in order that he might return as a 
citizen of our republic and claim commercial privileges as 
such. 

In obedience to the command of the government, Judge 
Taft proceeded from Vienna to St. Petersburg, reaching the 
latter place early in July. He soon had his family com- 
fortably located, presented his letter to the Czar, and was 
recognized as the duly accredited representative of the great 
American Republic. He found Alexander III, then the 
Czar of all the Russias, a man frank in manner, and of a 
very genial and democratic disposition. The Czar did not 
strike the American diplomat at all as the recluse he had 
been pictured. On the contrary, he and the Czarina went 
about the streets and in public galleries with as much free- 
dom as Judge Taft had seen the President of the United 
States doing. One day the Taft family had met them 
in a big drygoods store examining goods and discussing 
quality and prices with the same interest that any family 
might show. The Judge remarked to Mrs. Taft, " Being a 
Queen does not prevent a woman from taking a deep interest 
in the bargain counter ! " The Czar at that time was forty 
years old and had been on the throne since the death of his 
father at the hands of an assassin in 1881. The Czarina 
was the daughter of the King and Queen of Denmark. Both 
spoke English as fluently and much more correctly than the 
average American or Englishman. 

The family found the round of diplomatic usages and 
conventionalities as exacting and as pleasant as those in which 
thev had become familiar in Vienna. There was an air of 



IN KUSSIA 185 

conventional requirements even more commanding than that 
which they had found at the previous post. 

One evening at a dinner which the Tafts were giving to 
the diplomats and their families, a servant was directed to 
open a window but was unable to do so, when Judge Taft 
arose from the table, went over to the window and with his 
powerful arms easily raised it. When the visitors had gone, 
Mrs. Taft protested to her husband against his act of leaving 
the table to open the window, assuring him that in Russia 
such an act on the part of the host was by no means con- 
ventional. The Judge heard her out and replied, " When- 
ever I'm not permitted to open a window in my own house 
I want to go home." 

The first question, therefore, that faced Judge Taft in 
an official way was that of citizenship or expatriation. What 
protection should or could the United States offer a former 
subject of the Czar who, having come to the United States 
and been naturalized, had returned to the land of his nativity 
and had been aiTCsted by agents of the Czar as a Russian 
subject. He found that there was no law of the United 
States permitting the voluntary expatriation of a citizen, 
and the same condition existed in Russia. He found that 
expatriation had frequently been pleaded before the Supreme 
Court of the United States, but had never been allowed. 
He found it had been argued that freedom of emigration 
involved the right of expatriation and inferentially it must 
be concluded that expatriation is a natural right. Here 
again another obstacle presented itself. In the case of the 
Russian Jews who were in trouble with the Czar's agents 
nearly all had fled the country without having any legal 
authority to do so. They had shipped clandestinely and 
without passports. 

Beyond all this he found that there were no treaty stipu- 
lations to cover such cases. The treaty guaranteed protec- 
tion to American citizens and Russia denied that those under 
arrest were American citizens and did so with argumentative 
force. Nothing was left the American minister but to 
handle these cases on the ground of good fellowship and the 



186 ALPHONSO TAFT 

comity of nations. The United States regarded these people 
as her citizens and asked Eussia, a friendly nation, and one 
always very friendly with America, to look at such cases 
not on strictly legal groimds but as one friendly nation 
dealing with another. He picked out one of the worst cases 
for his side on which to make a contest. And he finally won. 
Having made the precedent, he handled it with great effect 
on other cases and was able in nearly every instance to get 
his men released from prison. It was only in cases where 
the arrested party had committed some flagrant violation of 
the law that he lost out. 

But in the early spring of 1885 Judge Taft was stricken 
with a serious and complicated illness. The rough Russian 
winter was too much even, for his rugged nature. His re- 
covery was far from complete and he felt compelled to ask 
his government to relieve him. This was done, and he 
reached England in time to sail on the Servia in August. 

Arriving with his family August 29th, Judge Taft was 
met by a reporter of the Tribune which printed this inter- 
esting interview: 

" Ex-Judge Alphonso Taft of Ohio, with his wife and 
daughter, arrived yesterday by the Servia from Europe, 
where he has been serving this Govermnent as Minister to 
Russia, being recently relieved because of illness. Mr. Taft 
had a severe attack of typhoid pneiunonia, by which he was 
confined to his house and to his bed for nearly two months, 
but he has partly recovered his health, although not his 
avoirdupois. He will remain here for two weeks with his 
son, Henry W. Taft, and then, after a visit to Washington, 
will return to Cincinnati. Speaking yesterday at the Fifth 
Avenue Hotel to a Tribune reporter about his post abroad, 
he said : 

" ' St. Petersburg is a delightful place for diplomatic ser- 
vice. The Emperor and all his Court are very civil, polite 
and cordial with the representatives of foreign countries. 
The weather is not so cold as I had expected to find it, and I 
actually suffered less inconvenience from the cold in St. 
Petersburg last winter than I have in some other places. 
They take great pains to protect you from the cold in the 



IN RUSSIA 187 

construction of the houses and in other ways, and they suc- 
ceed admirably.' 

" ' What did you see of Nihilism ? ' 

" ' Nothing at all. There is very little upon the surface 
in Russia as regards Nihilism, My impression is that the 
Goverment has been so persevering and the police so skillful 
in detecting the project of that kind that they have pretty 
much exterminated Nihilism. It may turn out differently, 
because Nihilists are not likely to publish their purposes. 
The government has been very diligent in ferreting out all 
the suspects.' 

" ' How about the Afghan question ? ' 

" ' I can safely say that it is a tedious one. I have no 
doubt it will be settled soon, at least for the present. That 
was the feeling when I left. There may be a war sometime 
between England and Russia growing out of this question, 
but I don't think either one wants war now or that they are 
going to have it. The negotiations between Russia and 
England are not so far published as to warrant an opinion 
in which I could have much confidence as to the boundary. 
The negotiations having been earnest and critical.' 

" ' Is Russia advancing in civilization ? ' 

" ' I should say, on the whole, that Russia is improving 
and progressing. I cannot say as to the intelligence among 
the people. The great attention of the Government is cen- 
tered on the army — on military power — rather than popular 
education. They have institutions for education of the 
children of the better classes, but nothing like the advantages 
for the military. The army is tremendous. I have heard 
since I landed that there is a prospect that the Czar will 
give the country a constitution. It would not surprise me 
at all, though it was not discussed in the papers, and it was 
indeed said that the present Emperor had declared he would 
not grant a constitution. It is one of the surprising things 
in Russia that while her Government is' the most absolute 
despotism on the globe, it permits Finland to have a legis- 
lature and local self-government.' 

" ' What of the Russian wheat fields ? ' 



188 ALPHONSO TAFT 

" ' The Russians actually rival us in grain on the fertile 
plains of Central and Southern Russia. If we had not so 
many railroads to collect and to bring to market our grain, I 
think they would beat us. We have better transportation. 
They have petroleum as much as we, though they have not 
yet been able to refine it as well. It commands only half 
the price. They put a big price on the importation of 
petroleum and they keep out ours. They rigidly enforce 
the tariff, too. There are no evasions. They burn petro- 
leum and candles in the houses and gas in the streets.' 
" ' Are other protective tariff duties in force ? ' 
" ' Yes ; they protect all their manufacturers. The man- 
ufacturing industry of the country is growing up under the 
policy and becoming very large. There is very little Ameri- 
can capital in Russia now. The policy of Russia is dis- 
couraging also to the English, who had a large colony of 
wealthy traders at St. Petersburg.' 

" ' Had Mr. Lathrop arrived before your departure ? ' 
" ' Yes ; he had taken a house and was duly settled. We 
presented our papers and had an audience with the Emperor 
on the same day. Lieutenant Schnetze, the agent of our 
government to distribute gifts to the natives who aided in 
rescuing the survivors of the Jemmette, was also there. He 
expects to be all winter at his work.' 

" ' What was your most important diplomatic work ? ' 
" ' The nearest approach to a large international question 
was with reference to the Hebrews^ — Russia is inflexible on 
this question. They will not let them trade there. The 
Hebrews had been coming to America and taking out papers 
of citizenship. Then they went back and began to trade 
in the little towns. When they were called upon to do mili- 
tary duty, they showed their papers. The Russian govern- 
ment thinks this is an abuse of our papers, and refuses to 
let the citizens trade. The Government permits to trade are 
necessary and cannot be obtained by the Hebrews. " 

Mr. Taft says that his health will prevent him from tak- 
ing any active part in the Ohio canvass, but he will probably 
be heard from before its close. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

Mr. Chas. p. Taft Sends an Emissary to the Bedside 
OF Gen, Grant — Mrs. Grant and Mrs. Jefferson 
Davis in After Years. 

Judge Taft always held Gen. Grant in the highest es- 
teem. He believed in him most thoronghly — in his integ- 
rity, his ability, and in his great usefulness to the country. 
'No man sympathized more deeply than he when financial 
disaster and later physical ailments came to the country's 
beloved former chief. 

From about 1882 Gen. Grant was suffering from a can- 
cerous condition of the tongue and throat. Judge Taft kept 
as well informed of his condition as it was possible for him 
to do. He was then serving his country in Europe. The 
papers had been filled with accounts of Gen. Grant's physi- 
cal condition as well as with his need of money. Judge 
Taft became so anxious and so disturbed about this that in 
July, 1885, a few months before returning to America, he 
wrote to his son, Mr. Charles P. Taft, asking and urging 
that Gen. Grant's condition be looked into. Mr. Chas, P. 
Taft, in obedience to the wishes of his father as well as in 
accordance with his own desires, determined to send an 
emissary to Mt. McGregor, near Saratoga Springs, where 
Gen. Grant had been taken. For this task Frank Gessner 
was selected and given full instructions as to the information 
he was to secure. Gessner was selected not only because of 
his fitness for such a task but also because he came from 
Clermont County, Ohio, which had given birth to Gen. Grant. 
Gessner reached Mt. McGregor early in July and found 
Gen. Grant so far gone that it had been determined that 
no one but the family doctors and nurses be admitted to his 
room. But the visitor sent word that he came from Mr. 
Taft and wanted to see the General. Mrs. Grant came to 
the door with a smile of welcome, saying, " From Mr. Taft, 
come in." Mr. Gessner says the eminent patient brightened 



190 ALPHONSO TAFT 

up, asked for Judge Taft and " Charlie " and continued 
quite a conversation with him. This conversation was ver- 
bal on the part of the visitor, but written on small slips of 
paper by the patient. Mr. Gessner learned from Mrs. Grant 
that everything was being done and that no physical com- 
forts could be added to what he was receiving. His book of 
memoirs was nearly finished. The first volume had been 
put on the market in the early part of that year and sales 
exceeded anything ever heard or known. 






The publishers had been liberal in their advances so that 
the dollar side of life would likely never again have to be 
considered by Mrs. Grant. Gen. Grant was just finishing 
the second volume when Mr. Gessner was there. He lived 
until July 23rd, passing away while Judge Taft was on his 
way home from Russia or just about to leave his post in that 
country. 

Mr. Gessner brought home the slips Gen. Grant had used 
in the conversation with him. The one given in fac simile 
shows the vein of humor that pervaded his temperament to 
the very last. In the slip reproduced, the General had 
written the question, " Are any of the Griffiths there yet ? " 
And after getting Mr. Gessner's affirmative reply continued 



GENERAL GRANT 191 

in the humorous and pathetic sentence that followed — 

" It is amazing how many people remain in Batavia when 
you consider the modern facilities for getting away. I used 
to take great pleasure in visiting Batavia and through Cler- 
mont county, but I have made my last visit." 

The original of the written side of this conversation is 
still in possession of the writer of these pages and is under- 
stood to be the last lines ever penned by Gen. Grant except 
to the members of his own family. Mr. Gessner is still 
living and takes great pride in telling of the occasion when 
he went as Mr. Taft's emissary to the bedside of Gen. Grant 
at Mt. McGregor. Judge Taft arrived home in August to 
find that his old friend had passed away, but also to learn 
that nothing had been left undone that could have contributed 
to his comfort or length of life. 

Some eight years later, Mrs. TJ. S. Grant and Mrs. Jef- 
ferson Davis were living at the old New York Hotel. They 
were close friends and had apartments on the same floor. 
A caller on Mrs. Davis being told of Mrs. Grant's residence 
in the house, related the incident of Mr. Gessner's visit to 
Gen. Grant at Mt. McGregor. Mrs. Davis insisted on her 
friend seeing the visitor and soon Mrs. Grant appeared. 
The widow of the grand old warrior and statesman re- 
counted with interest and pathos incidents of the lasl days 
at Mt. McGregor, and said the General was much pleased 
with the visit from Mr. Taft's emissary. He was always 
very fond of Judge Taft and all the family. 

After Mrs. Grant had gone her friend recounted some- 
thing of the success of Gen. Grant's book, saying the profits 
were now netting Mrs. Grant some $30,000 a year, and the 
family believed they would exceed a total of half a million 
dollars. 

It is a fact not generally known that Gen. Grant and 
Jeiferson Davis were cousins, the relationship coming 
through the Simpson family, to which their mothers belonged. 



CHAPTER XXV 

His Last Days — A Winter in California, Where the 
End Came — A Great and Good Man Passes Away. 

After a short stay in New York with his son, Mr. Henry 
W. Taft, the Judge and his family returned to Cincinnati, 
where it was hoped that rest and a renewal of contact with 
scenes he loved would restore his health. He was suffering 
from a complication of maladies produced by the effects of 
the rough Russian winter. A tendency to pneumonia was 
not checked, as his wife, children and friends had so fondly 
hoped. At the urgent solicitation of his family and friends 
in the beginning of the winter of 1890, he went to the Pacific 
coast. It was believed by his physician that the great con- 
trast he would experience between the mild and salubrious 
climate of California and the rough winters of Russia would 
prove of great benefit to the patient. Such benefit as he did 
receive, however, proved only temporary and in the early 
Spring he grew worse. He remained there until his passing 
away, which occurred May 21, 1891. 

And with his demise the country lost one of its ablest, 
busiest and most useful men. His long life had been so 
filled with great achievement that no two well-posted persons 
would be likely to agree as to what particular effort consti- 
tuted the greatest act of his life. 

The scholar would feel that his work at and for Yale, his 
paper on Cicero and Caesar and other evidences of his ripe 
scholarship were attributes and accomplishments on which 
his fame could well be rested. 

Those persons deeply interested in the material develop- 
ment of Cincinnati would be divided in rating the importance 
of his work in behalf of the railroads and his success in saving 
the McMiken bequests for her educational institution. 

The conservative jurist devoted to a careful construction 
and forceful administration of the law, who despised trim- 
mers and stood for manliness as well as great ability on the 



194 ALPHONSO TAFT 

bench, would be likely to consider bis " Bible in the public 
schools " decision one of the acts that mark the real greatness 
of the man. 

But with due regard to all these and many other accom- 
plishments of almost equal importance, the statesman and 
student of history is likely to consider as the acme of a life 
of great work his effort in coordination with J. Proctor 
Knott of Kentucky, which resulted in settling the disputed 
presidency in 1876 and in averting a civil war and spirit 
of anarchy that threatened the country. 

But the philosopher and historian would not attach su- 
preme importance to a single one of these great achievements, 
but would consider the whole work of the man who in full 
heaped and rounded measure, embraced all the splendid 
qualities and performed the varied acts which only such an 
exceptional scholar, statesman, lawyer and jurist would be 
able to accomplish. 

Judge Taft was a big man physically, morally and men- 
tally. He stood six feet in his stockings and possessed a 
big head and a powerful frame. He was a man of high 
principles, rugged honesty and sterling integrity. 

" His life was gentle, and the elements so mixed in him 
that nature might stand up and say to all the world — This 
is a man." 



CHAPTER XXVI 
THE TAFTS OF TODAY* 

Chaeles Phelps Taft, Peter Rawson Taft, Hulbert 
Taft, William Howard Taft, Henry W. Taft, Hor- 
ace D. Taft, Frances Taft Edwards, Etc. 

Charles Phelps Taft, the eldest son of Alphonso Taft 
and Fanny Phelps Taft, was born in the city of Cincinnati, 
December 21, 1843. After the usual primary course in the 
city schools, he entered that institution so dear to his towns- 
men, " Old Woodward," at that time a high school of ex- 
cellent standing, where he remained for three years. His 
preparation for college was at Phillips Andover Academy, 
from which in 1860 he entered Yale College where he grad- 
uated four years later (1864) with the degree of Bachelor 
of Arts, receiving the master's degree in due course in 1867. 
Among his classmates was John Sterling, whose recent gen- 
erous gift to Yale promises so much for the future of edu- 
cation. 

The inherited tradition of the family naturally directed 
him to the study of the law which he took up at the newly 
established Columbia Law School, rich in its traditions of 
James Kent and the personal direction of the distinguished 
Theodore W. Dwight, where after two years' study he gradu- 
ated, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1866. 
The lure of the practice brought him back to his birth place, 
and for some months he was in the law office of his father, 
at that time associated with George R. Sage, subsequently 
United States District Judge, and Henry Haacke, the well- 
known lawyer and linguist and afterwards prominent jour- 
nalist. This brief experience impressed him with the desire 
to broaden his mental equipment by foreign study and travel, 
and as a result he spent the next three years abroad. A 
winter in Berlin to perfect himself in the language was 

* In collaboration with Charles Theodore Greve 



196 ALPHONSO TAFT 

followed by an extended tonr of the battlefields of Central 
Europe, resting from the contest of 1866 and awaiting 1870, 
after which he studied at Heidelberg, at that time the Mecca 
for those desiring the highest training under such men as 
Bluntschli, Treitschke, and Helmholtz, later withdrawn to 
aid in the primacy of the University of Berlin. Here he 
received the then quite unusual degree of Juris Utriusque 
Doctor (J. U. D.). A winter's further study at the Sor- 
bonne in Paris (especially for the language and literature), 
supplemented by a three months' residence in Italy and a 
season of extended travel on the continent and in England 
and in Scotland, brought him back to his native city at the 
age of twenty-six with a mind enriched and broadened by 
thorough training and association with educators of the best 
type both in this country and abroad to a degree quite un- 
usual for his age and time. The intellectual development 
founded upon a basis of such thoroughness and breadth has 
been continued throughout a long life by renewed association 
with the best minds and interest in the best in art and letters 
and accounts in a great degree for the position maintained 
by Mr. Taft in the minds of those that know him well as 
one of the very highest type of culture. A successful two 
years at the bar in partnership with General Edward F. 
ISToyes was terminated by the election of that gentleman to 
the governorship of Ohio and of Mr. Taft as a member of 
the State Legislature from Hamilton County. With his 
unusual equipment in matters of education, it was peculiarly 
fitting that he should become the chairman of the committee 
on schools and school lands, a work into which he threw him- 
self with great energy and enjoyment and with much profit 
to the community, securing as he did the first codification 
of the school laws of the state. He also acted as editor of 
The Cincinnati Superior Court Reports, associating with 
him in the first volume Mr. Bellamy Storer and in the sec- 
ond volume his brother, Peter R. Taft. These two volumes 
embrace the decisions of the court of which his father v/as 
at that time a member and of which his brother William was 
later a member for the years 1870 to 1873, and are still 



THE TAFTS OF TODAY 197 

cited as of great aiithoritative value. He subsequently prac- 
ticed law for some years in association with his father and 
brother Peter, His services in the legislature and his stand- 
ing in the community were recognized by the nomination by 
the Republican party for Congress from the first Ohio dis- 
trict upon the resignation of Mr. Aaron F. Perry, but this 
(1873) was the Greeley year and he suffered defeat with his 
party, which did not succeed in electing a congressman in 
Hamilton County for a number of years. 

At a later period (1895) he was more successful, being 
elected to represent the First District in the Fifty-ninth 
Congress. In the following year, 1896, at the time when 
the contest for the Republican nomination for the presidency 
was narrowed down to Mr. McKinley and Thomas B. Reed 
of Maine, it was strongly felt by Mr. Reed's supporters that 
if Mr. Taft, then a member of Congress from Ohio, could 
be induced to accept the nomination for the vice-presidency 
on the ticket with Reed, th© State of Ohio would be split 
and the combination of Reed and Taft would prevail. The 
proposition was made with great earnestness to Mr. Taft, 
but he positively refused to enter into the plan, stating that 
his feeling of loyalty would not permit him to accept even 
the certainty of the vice-presidency, and forecasting even at 
that early date the subsequent advancement of his brother 
William to the presidency. In 1904 he was elected presi- 
dential elector at large from Ohio and in January, 1905, 
he was chosen president of the electoral college which cast 
its vote for Theodore Roosevelt for President. Four years 
later, 1908, he was delegate at large from Ohio for the 
Republican ISTational Convention and had the satisfaction of 
casting his vote for the nomination for the presidency of the 
United States of his brother, William Howard Taft. His 
influence in the councils of his party has always been very 
great and on several occasions he has been seriously consid- 
ered as a proper representative of his state to the National 
Senate. 

In 1879 Mr. Taft, in association with his father-in-law, 
Mr. David Sinton, purchased the controlling interest in 



198 ALPHONSO TAFT 

The Times, an afternoon paper of many years' standing 
published in the city of Cincinnati. Dnring the following 
year the paper absorbed The Star, taking the title which 
it now holds, The Cincinnati Times-Sta,r. Mr. Taft has 
directed the destinies of this newspaper for a period of forty 
years, during which time it has grown to a position of leader- 
ship not only of the papers of the Republican party but of 
the press of the nation. While essentially a newspaper of 
the best type, with the advantage of the greatest service 
known to the world, it has through its editorials and special 
departments and feature articles commended itself as a paper 
with especial appeal to the family and the household. For 
a number of years prior to 1890, Mr. Taft was also the 
owner and vice-president of The Volkshlatt, a German news- 
paper published in the city of Cincinnati. 

Few men have been privileged to give as freely of their 
service to the city of their birth as Charles P. Taft. His 
relationship to the press, his position of responsibility and 
his personality combined with his broad and diversified train- 
ing and tastes have made him a most potent influence in 
the development of the community in w^hich he has lived. 
No matter connected with the public welfare has lacked his 
support and in many of the most important organizations 
of the city he has taken a most active part. To attempt to 
enumerate in detail his relationships to the various phases 
of city life would necessitate the writing of the history of 
the city for a third of a century and the reconstructing of a 
directory of the financial, educational, charitable, artistic 
and literary institutions of a great community. 

In its early days he helped to establish on a firmer basis 
the celebrated zoological gardens of the city, serving as a 
member of the board of directors for a number of years, and 
the conclusion is but natural that the recent reorganization 
of that institution made possible through the great generosity 
of Mr. Taft and others owes a considerable portion of its 
success to his support. Service on the governing boards of 
The Cincinnati May Festival Association, The Cincinnati 
Museum Association (of which he is president), The Young 



THE TAFTS OF TODAY 199 

Men's Mercantile Library Association, Union Board of High 
Schools (part of the time as president), and as president of 
the University Club and his cooperation with his wife in 
her great work in connection with others in the establish- 
ment and maintenance of the Cincinnati Orchestra in a 
position of leadership, testify strongly to his love of the 
better things of life. His breadth of view and regard for 
higher education in this country were signally demonstrated 
by the fact of his unsolicited but generous gift to the Harvard 
Endowment fund all the more appreciated by Harvard men 
(as well as all college men) as coming from a distinguished 
alumnus of her old-time rival. Similar gifts to the endow- 
ment funds of Princeton and Cincinnati Universities have 
served to strengthen this feeling of gi-atitude on the part of 
all interested in higher education. 

When Mr. Charles P. Taft found himself at the head of 
The Times-Star by purchase and consolidation, journalism 
throughout the country was at a low ebb. To say that much 
of it was yellow would be to use a light tint to indicate the 
recklessness and sensationalism that prevailed in many quar- 
ters. It was regarded as legitimate journalism to invade 
home life and to exploit family troubles to make newspaper 
sensations. Mr. Taft laid down principles of fairness and 
decency that were to be followed in all cases. And they 
were followed. Crime was exposed but not exploited ; and' 
The Times-Star became a clean, high grade newspaper ; and 
it remained so and prospered on these lines. " Give the 
people what they want " was a favorite newspaper adage 
those days. But Mr. Taft always believed in catering to the 
better tastes instead of pandering to the depraved. It was 
soon found that as a rule people's tastes were above the kinds 
of food that had been dispensed to them. The evidence of 
approval came in the fact that the circulation of the news- 
paper soon exceeded the combined circulations of the two 
old ones. The duplicates in readers were quickly made up 
by the addition of new ones. As competent a journalist 
and as educated a man as Mr. Archer Brown insisted that 
The Times-Star was too fine a paper for the people of the 



200 ALPHOIs^SO TAFT 

day and that it could not succeed on these lines, as desirable 
as such success would be. But it did ; and years afterward 
Mr. Brown congratulated the proprietor of The Times-Star 
on having had the nerve to fight out the battle on lines of 
decency and fairness. Mr. Taft never varied nor permitted 
a variation from the principles he lajid down on founding 
the paper. 

In his newspaper management Mr. Taft always stood for 
the news but demanded accuracy, definiteness and fairness. 
His unvarying rule was that every one should be treated 
with respectful consideration. There must be no undue 
advantage taken of the readers or of individuals who figured 
in news stories. One day during the Blaine and Logan 
campaign, Mr. Cowan of Millersburg, Ohio, father of John 
Cowan, president of the B. & O. Railroad, brought to The 
Times-Star office a letter that seemed to be of tremendous 
import. It was charged that at the beginning of the Civil 
War John A. Logan wiavered in his loyalty to the Union, 
being inclined to takes sides with the seceding states. This 
had been frequently charged and frequently denied. 

Mr. Cowan explained that early in the war a young man 
from Millersburg employed in Washington had gone South, 
joined the Southern Army and been killed. After the close 
of the war his effects had been sent to his mother in Millers- 
burg and among them was found this letter. It was from 
John Logan to Jefferson Davis, introducing the Millersburg 
boy. It expressed sympathy for the Southern cause and 
great hopes for the success of the secession movement. 
There was much in the letter of the same kind. It would 
not only prove a bomb in the campaign, but as one explained 
it, " would blow Logan off the ticket." Mr. Taft demanded 
to know if tJie authenticity of tlie letter was absolutely sure. 
It was placed in the hands of Harry Miner, a most reliable 
and competent reporter, who went to Columbus where Logan 
was to speak, with orders to show him the letter and get his 
version. 

Mr. Miner returned with the information that Logan re- 
fused to look at the letter, or to discuss it. He said there 



THE TAFTS OF TODAY 201 

were times of great excitement and on© was very likely to 
write or say things he might regret afterwards. But Miner 
concluded significantly, " Logan wrote that letter." Others 
thought there might be a mistake. Miner had shown the 
letter or spoken of it to a Commercial correspondent, who 
told Mr. Halstead of it. Halstead, not friendlv to Log-an, 
asked for the letter if The Times-Star was not going to use 
it. When this request was brought to Mr. Taft, he said, 
" No, we will not permit the letter to be put afloat at random. 
We will either use it or it will not be used." And it was not 
used. 

After the election was over and Logan was defeated. 
Governor Hendricks, his successful opponent, was told of the 
letter. He wanted to see it. On looking it over he laughed 
and said, '^ That letter was not written by John A. Logan. 
The writer was John H. Logan of Atlanta. See the top of 
the middle letter does not come together. It's an H and 
not an A." And Governor Hendricks went on, " John H. 
Logan was my clerk when I was in the Land Office just 
before the war began." 

Mr. Taft is the man who conceived and first carried out 
the idea of leased wires for the collection and distribution 
of news. Until after he went into the newspaper business 
all news collections and distributions by telegraph were done 
at a rate of so much per word. One day Mr. Taft, returning 
from New York, fell in with a Chicago broker, Mr. George 
Walker, who told of having a leased wire for the use of his 
broker's office and the great advantage of promptness in 
getting information. 

*' We have a telegraph instrument and an operator right 
in our office," said Mr. Walker. Mr. Taft reached home 
thoroughly imbued with the idea of a leased wire for an 
afternoon newspaper. He dispatched a representative to 
New York with a letter to Jay Gould and authority to lease 
a wire from New York to Cincinnati. This was done and an 
option taken on an extension from Cincinnati to St. Louis, 
and from St. Louis to Chicago. The hours of service at 
first were from 4 a. m. to 8 a. m. This gave the newspaper 



202 ALPHONSO TAFT 

the use of the wire after the night business had been cleaned 
up and before day messages had been started. 

The arrangement worked so well that a paper was taken 
on in St. Louis and one in Chicago. Later on a part of 
the time was used by the papers at the three points in 
exchanging news with each other. So well did this service 
work that it was continued long after Mr. Pulitzer bought 
the New York Woiid, when that paper became the eastern 
news terminus for the circuit. Seeing how well the leased 
wire idea worked out for papers, Mr. Taft began agitating 
for its application to all news associations, and at his sug- 
gestion contracts were made first by the United Press and 
also by the Western Associated Press for the lease of wires 
from the Telegraph Company for the collection and dis- 
tribution of news with operators installed in all newspaper 
offices. By the consolidation of the two papers, The Times- 
Star had secured membership and service in both news asso- 
ciation, the Times having had that of the Western Associated 
Press and the Star that of the United Press. At that time 
the Western Associated Press covered only the western 
states, while the United Press reached over the entire coun- 
try. The use of both news service and the leased wire gave 
The Times-Star an unequaled news service. The Cincinnati 
Times-Star was the first paper in the country to have its 
own leased wires and its proprietor was the first to impress 
on the news associations the advantage of promptness and 
economy to be secured by such an arrangement for the news 
associations. The first contract for such service was made 
by the old United Press by M. E. Stone, Harry Byrum, 
John W. Farrell and the representative of Mr. Taft on the 
part of the news associations, and Jay Gould, Dr. Green, 
Russell Sage and Gen. T. T. Eckert in behalf of the Tele- 
graph Company. Later a similar contract was made by 
the Western Associated Press, the same men representing 
the Telegraph Company, and two of the same acting for the 
news association. 

Perhaps no newspaper in the whole country ever graduated 
as many men into important positions as has Tlie Times-Star. 



I 



THE TAFTS OF TODAY 203 

Mr. Taft is a fine judge of human nature and an excellent 
handler of men. That he selected good material and made 
the most of it is evidenced by the men from his paper that 
afterwards occupied important positions and did it with 
credit. 

Three former Times-Star writers became judges of United 
States Court, one became head of the Bureau of Statistics of 
the Department of Commerce and is now a world authority 
on statistics in the greatest national bank in the country. 

Another was made Assistant Postmaster General, while 
still another entered the Navy and reached high rank. He 
died at the commencement of tJie Spanish-American War. 

A number became prominent newspaper men in other 
cities, while one, Graham Phillips, after his Times-Star 
experience, achieved the greatest news scoop in the whole 
history of journalism in this or any other country. As 
London correspondent of the New York World he got the 
news of the most disastrous naval accident that ever occurred 
in time of peace, the collision of the Camperdown and Vic- 
toria off the coast of Syria, in which the Admiral, both Com- 
manders and 1400 men were lost. Phillips sent the account 
complete to his paper before either the English Admiralty 
or the London newspapers had heard a word of it, and for 
three days he held the wires to the Syrian port where the 
accident occurred. 

Mr. Taft was a bidder for the New York World at the 
time it was purchased by Mr. Pulitzer. On learning that 
the paper was in the market Mr. Taft sent a representative 
to Jay Gould, the owner, and negotiations for the purchase 
were opened. Mr. Gould said: 

" Yes, I want to sell the paper and I'm going to sell it. 
A paper is no use to a man like me after people know that he 
owns it." And he continued," Anything in the paper that 
people do not like, they charge up to me. The things they 
like are credited to the editor. I have had newspaper ex- 
perience enough, which is really none at all." Mr. Gould 
then said he had given an option on the property which 
still had a week to run and he agreed that Mr. Taft could 



204 ALPHONSO TAFT 

have it on the same terms, if the party holding the option did 
not take it. Mr. Taft's representative waited, imder the 
impression that Mr, Halstead, backed by Cyrus Field 
held the option. Mr. Pulitzer knew that some one was 
waiting to get the property if he did not take it, and be- 
lieved the waiting party to be Halstead and Cyrus Field. 

Mr. Gould expressed the hope that the paper would go to 
Mr. Taft because Mr. Taft was willing to purchase the 
real estate, while Mr. Pulitzer's option did not cover the real 
estate and he did not intend to take it. 

On the day before the option expired Mr. Pulitzer and 
the representative of Mr. Taft lunched with General Charles 
H. Taylor in the restaurant in the Staats Zeitung Building. 
They talked of everything concerned wiih newspaper ac- 
tivities but neither in any way referred to the purchase 
of the World. But the World went to Mr. Pulitzer. 
There is every reason to believe that if Mr. Taft had secured 
it he would have made as much of a success as did Mr. 
Pulitzer. He had already made a reputation in the news- 
paper world quite equal to that of any man in the country, 
and the same principles of high class journalism that made 
for success in Cincinnati would have worked equally well 
in the larger field of the East. 

A notable gift to the City was the Barnard statue of 
Lincoln, a work of great strength and beauty of conception 
as a whole, a replica of which is also erected in the city 
of Manchester, England. 

The Anna Louise Inn is a notable Institution, the first of 
its kind in the country, which has been filled since its 
inception. It is designed to furnish a home for young 
working girls of restricted earnings at such times as will 
relieve them largely of the burden of self support without 
making them dependent upon charity. 

Mr. Charles P. Taft purchased the Cubs October 15, 
1905. His associates were Charles W. Murphy, Frank 
Chance — stock later transferred to Harry Ackerland. 
Frank Chance was manager when Mr. Taft purchased the 
club and remained manager until 1912. The Cubs were 



THE TAFTS OF TODAY 205 

National champions in the years 1906, 1907, 1908 and 1910, 
and World's champions in 1908. 

Mr. Charles P. Taft became President of, and took 
an active interest in the development of The Coleman- 
Fulton Pasture Company, or what is now commonly known 
as the " Taft Ranch," along in the early eighties. 

This ranch is situated in the counties of San Patricio 
and Aransas, along the Gulf Coast in the southwest of the 
State of Texas, and contains about 80,000 acres of the 
richest black land in the state. 

At the time Mr. Taft became President of the company, 
the ranch was used exclusively as a cattle range, with a 
rather inferior herd of cattle roaming in the pastures; in 
fact, the land was not considered suitable for anything but 
grazing purposes. Under Mr. Taft's control and guidance 
however, the grade of cattle has not only been improved 
until they are now considered one of the best herds in 
Texas, but the land has also been extensively developed in 
an agricultural way, and it is to-day the home of hundreds 
of prosperous and contented farmers. 

The story of the development of the Taft ranch plays 
an important part in the history of the agricultural de- 
velopment of Southwest Texas. Beginning with a few 
scattered farms of from 50 to 100 acres each, which served 
to prove that this rich black soil was a wonderful producer 
of cotton, Kaffir corn, Milo maize. Sorghum cane, etc., the 
company continued to clear and plow up the virgin soil 
until some 14,000 acres were under cultivation. This 
14,000 acres was divided into fifty tenant farms of from 
160 to 200 acres to the farm, and five large farms of about 
1,000 acres each, which were operated directly by the com- 
pany. 

The putting of this large body of land in cultivation 
attracted quite a number of experienced cotton farmers 
from North Texas, and the surrounding Southern states 
as well as a number of Northern farmers to the ranch. 
The large farms were placed in charge of some of these 
men and the tenant farms were rented to others and to 



206 ALPHONSO TAFT 

employes of the company on a one-fourth share of the 
cotton and one-third share of the feed crop basis. The 
services of a well known agricultural expert was then 
secured, and an eleventh of the land in cultivation was 
handled under his direction in the most modern and scien- 
tific manner. 

The results secured in the way of crop production, as 
well as the systematic manner in which the crops were 
handled attracted the attention of practically the entire 
cotton growing region, and not only assisted in the de- 
velopment of the surrounding counties, but also the entire 
southwestern section of the state. 

In the meantime about 30,000 acres of the original 
110,000 acres owned by the company were sold to incoming 
farmers and employes of the company, the majority of 
whom immediately started to clear the land purchased and 
erect homes on same. Five cotton gins, a cotton seed oil mill, 
a packing house, three lumber, feed and implement yards, 
two general stores, two hotels, etc. were then erected and 
placed in operation by the company from time to time as 
conditions warranted, for the accommodation of the incoming 
farmers and the handling of the company's own crops, and 
to-day there are over twenty different industries, stores, etc., 
conducted by the ranch, for its own as well as for the needs 
of the surrounding territory. 

This also has materially assisted in the development of this 
section, and as the farmers who had originally started in as 
tenants were prospering and gradually buying uncultivated 
land from the company, which they would put into cultiva- 
tion, and then move on to, thus giving place to new tenants, 
the ranch has had a healthy and steady growth. 

In accordance with Mr. Taft's instructions, tenant farmers 
and employes of the company are given the preference when 
they desire to purchase land for the purpose of putting same 
in cultivation, and owning their own farms, and the land 
is sold to them on such terms and conditions, that after mak- 
ing the original payment they are usually able to make the 
balance of the succeeding payments from the crops raised on 



THE TAFTS OF TODAY 207 

the place, and in this way own their own farms outright 
within the course of a very few years. 

This policy has not only resulted in the development of 
happy and contented communities from the fact that the 
farmers and employes have a future to look forward to, but 
it has also resulted in very prosperous communities, as many 
of the farmers and employes who started on the ranch with 
very little, if any, means are tof-day independent. 

The cotton grown on the ranch and in the immediate sur- 
rounding territory is ginned in the company's gins. The 
seed secured after the ginning process, is crushed by the 
Taft Oil and Gin Company, and most of the hulls and cotton 
seed meal resulting from the crushing is fed to the cattle 
which are raised on the ranch. The oil secured from the 
crush is then refined by the Taft Packing House and the 
refined cotton seed oil is manufactured into a most delicious 
and snow white vegetable shortening known as " Taft's 
Crystal Shortening " which is sold by the Taft Packing 
House throughout the great Southwest 

The towns of Taft, Gregory and Portland, Texas, are lo- 
cated on the ranch and the town of Sinton, Texas, is now 
located on the border of same. The principal industries, as 
well as a larger power plant, an electric lighting system and 
a water works system, are located at Taft, Texas. 

In 1916 Mr. Charles P. Taft acquired control of the Car- 
lisle property at Fourth and Walnut streets, Cincinnati, 
Ohio, and with Messrs. A. Clifford Shinkle, Charles D. Jones, 
Frank J. Jones and Harry L. Linch, as managing director, 
organized The Dixie Terminal Company, for the purpose of 
providing a terminal in the heart of the city for all the lines 
of the jSTewport and Covington, Kentucky, Street Railway 
Systems, combined with a modern arcade and office building, 
which will be a credit to the city of Cincinnati. 

Additional property was then acquired on Fourth street, 
Walnut street and along Third street, so that to-day the 
company has a frontage on Fourth street of 142 feet, from 
the southwest corner of Fourth and Walnut, 231 feet on 
Walnut street and 139 feet on Third street. 



208 ALPHONSO TAFT 

The Terminal building proper will front on Third 
street, and connect with the Fourth and Walnut street prop- 
erty by means of a subway on one level and a ramp on 
another. 

The North building fronting on Fourth street will contain 
a beautiful arcade, which will serve as a passageway for pas- 
sengers on their way to and from Terminal. The ISTorth 
building will be finished in imported marble throughout, and 
will be devoted to high grade shop and office tenants. 

To indicate fully Mr. Taft's relationship to the business 
and financial world would necessitate the call of the roll of 
many of the most important institutions of Cincinnati and 
other cities. In no field, however, has his service been of 
more value than as a member of the board of trustees of the 
Sinking Fund of the city for sixteen years, including ten 
years as president, during which time he was mainly instru- 
mental in refunding a large portion of the city debt at an 
unprecedentedly low rate of interest, thereby saving to the 
city many millions of dollars and at the same time preserving 
its credit. 

In all his relationships both in the business world and in 
public and social activities, Mr. Taft's broad cultivation, ex- 
treme fairness of mind, and courtesy and urbanity have been 
a marked characteristic and it is difficult for one who has 
served with him and under him to avoid exaggeration of ex- 
pression in speaking of the charm of his personality to those 
with whom he comes into contact. 

Mr. Taft was married on December 4, 1873, to Annie, 
daughter of David Sinton (one of Cincinnati's wealthiest 
and most prominent citizens) and Jane Ellison Sinton. 
Mrs. Taft in her own person has been a leader of the 
artistic and musical life of the city, and her work as presi- 
dent of the Cincinnati Orchestra Association has given her 
a permanent place in the esteem of her fellow citizens. She 
has co-operated with Mr. Taft in his public life and in chari- 
table and civic leadership. 

The family residence on Pike street, perhaps now the 
most historic residence in the city, as the result of many 



THE TAFTS OF TODAY 209 

years careful and critical selection of works of the highest 
value, is probably the most important treasure house of art 
in the middle West. 

Jane Taft, the eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Taft, is 
the wife of Mr. Albert S. Ingalls, of Cleveland, and the 
mother of two sons, David Sinton Ingalls and Albert Simp- 
son Ingalls and a daughter, Anne Taft Ingalls. David Sinton 
Ingalls was recently honored by receiving from the hands of 
the Prince of Wales a decoration bestowed by the British 
Government for distinguished service as an ace during the 
recent war. Anna Louise Taft, the second daughter, is the 
wife of Professor William T. Semple of the Greek depart- 
ment of the University of Cincinnati and the mother of a 
son, Charles Taft Semple. 

Peter Rawson Taft 

Peter Rawson Taft^, the second son of Alphonso and 
Fanny Phelps Taft, was born in Cincinnati in 1846. He 
attended the Cincinnati public schools, went to Woodward 
High School, finishing his preparation for college at Phillips 
Andover Academy. He entered Yale in 1863, graduating 
with the class of 1867 with the highest standing that had 
been reached at that college up to that time and acting as 
valedictorian of the class. After graduation he entered the 
practice of the law in Cincinnati, associating himself with 
his father and his brother Charles under the finn name of A. 
Taft and Sons. In 1873 he joined with his brother Charles in 
editing the second volume of The Cincinnati Superior Court 
Reporter. He was a very thorough lawyer and indefatigable 
worker and achieved considerable reputation in his profession 
by unusual ability displayed in a case quite celebrated in 
Ohio Law Reports, that of Levi V. Earl, defining the status 
of married women at that time. 

In 1876 he married Matilda Hulbert, a daughter of Wil- 
liam P. Hulbert, for many years a leader in the commercial 
life of the city. He died in 1889 leaving a son Hulbert, at 
present editor of the Cincinnati Times-Star. 



210 ALPHONSO TAFT 

HULBEET TaFT 

HuLBEKT TafT;, the only son of Peter Rawson Taft and 
Matilda Hnlbert Taft, was born in Cincinnati in 1877. He 
received his early education in the public schools, spending 
two years at Franklin school, Cincinnati, in preparation for 
college and entered Yale in 1896 graduating in the class of 
1900. 

After graduation he entered newspaper work in the city 
of Cincinnati. He has been editor of the Cincinnati Times- 
Star since 1908, and has contributed largely to the position 
of that journal as a leader among the substantial newspapers 
of the country. 

He married l^ellie Leaman, daughter of Thomas Leaman, 
in 1904. Four children, Hulbert., Jr., Katharine Phillips, 
Margo and David Gibson, are the result of the union. 

William Howard Taft 

William Howard Taft, former President of the United 
States, was the third son of Alphonso Taft and the eldest 
son of Judge Taft and Louise Maria Torrey. He was born at 
Mt. Auburn, Cincinnati, on September 15, 1857. His edu- 
cation began at the public school on Mt. Auburn and from 
there he entered Woodward High School. 

He was a robust youth and of that stern mold which gave 
promise of development into a tremendous frame, the full- 
grown man. He was a good playfellow and a book showing 
early baseball in Cincinnati presents him as captain of the 
Mt. Auburn team. He was a master swimmer and an expert 
at marbles. His inheritance of brains, physique and dis- 
position began early to manifest itself. He was fond of 
play and also fond of work. He was just as ready for a 
game as the next one, but when the time came for work he 
was for doing the work. Of course a boy with that dis- 
position progressed rapidly in his school course. It was 
inevitable that he should stand well up towards the head of 
his classes and that his information should not be confined 
to the school book tasks. He had the great advantage of fine 



THE TAFTS OF TODAY 211 

home association and devoured the newspapers as well as 
many books, not in the strict line of his school work. The 
essential attributes of Mr. Taft today are good nature, sym- 
pathy, and a quick sense of justice, slowness to wrath, but a 
magnificent readiness to fight when aroused ; and for battle 
in case of need. Young Taft finished the course at Wood- 
ward High School and then went to Phillips Academy at 
Andover, Mass., where he prepared for Yale. Judge Al- 
phonso Taft, his father, had been elected to the Yale Cor- 
poration, the first alumnus of the old college to be so honored. 
His elder brothers, Charles and Peter, had graduated from 
Yale and Will naturally became a son of Eli. When he 
entered college in the fall of '74 he was a fine specimen of 
young manhood, standing six feet and weighing more than 
200 pounds. While fond of athletics he went in for the 
realities of college work. He was there for the sake of an 
education, and he meant to make the most of the oppor^ 
tunity. His whole college career was an exhibition of a 
clean life, clean thinking and clean work. He won the hon- 
ors of his class and the respect and love of all his fellows. 
The hold he then established on his classmates he has main- 
tained ever since. 

Having graduated from Yale, he returned to Cincinnati 
det-ermined to fit himself for the Law and to earn his living 
while doing so. He became a reporter on his brother's paper, 
The Cincinnati Times Star and " did the courts." Soon he 
had an offer of more remunerative work from Mr. Halstead 
of the Commercial and trajisferred his eft'orts to that paper. 
From the begimiing of his residence in Cincinnati he took 
a deep interest in politics and exerted himself in favor of 
the election of clean men for ofiice. While studying law 
and doing newspaper work Mr. Taft put in as much time 
as possible in learning the local situation and in making the 
acquaintance of political leaders, large and small. He de- 
termined to know not only the well-to-do and educated in 
his ward, but also the laborers, the storekeepers and even 
the saloonkeepers, so that he might understand the controlling 



212 ALPHONSO TAFT 

influences, and be able to catch the point of view of every 
class of workers. 

An episode of his life while studying law and doing news- 
paper work is told by a recent writer much as it was r^ 
corded at the time of the occurrence. A man named Rose 
ran a blackmailing newspaper in Cincinnati. Rose was an 
ex-prize fighter and an all-round ruilian. He printed a scur- 
rilous article about Judge Alphonso Taft, which was so 
palpably a slander that Judge Taft's friends only laughed 
and gave it no serious thought. But it didn't strike Will 
Taft as in any way funny. He started for Rose's office 
with his face flushed and his fists doubled up. On the street 
he met his mam 

" Are you Rose? " demanded Taft. 

Rose started an affirmative nod, but before he had half 
concluded it Taft had picked him up bodily and flung him 
down with a bang on the pavement. He didn't deign to 
strike. He simply put one knee in the small of the black- 
mailer's back and began cheerfully grinding his face into the 
paving stones. Rose howled with pain and rage. 

" I'll let you up if you'll get out of town tonight," said 
Taft. 

Between howls Rose managed to make a promise to quit, 
and Taft let him up. 

" Now," said Taft, " I'll come down here again tonight, 
and if you are still here this is only a starter." 

But Rose had had plenty. He quit Cincinnati that night 
and his slander-monger never appeared again. 

In 1880 Will Taft graduated from the Law School, divid- 
ing the first honors with another industrious and ambitious 
student. He began the practice of law in his father's old 
firm but devoted a good deal of time to politics and took a 
finn stand against gang rule. 

He had been practicing law but one year when he was 
called to his first public service. A friend, Miller Outcalt, 
now a leader of the Cincinnati bar, had been elected prosecu- 
ting attorney of Hamilton county, and Taft was appointed 
his assistant. 



THE TAFTS OF TODAY 213 

Young Taft had gained a reputation for ability, integrity 
and clean politics which extended outside his state. Presi- 
dent Arthur, seeking a way out of a factional fight in Cin- 
cinnati, found it by making Taft collector of intiemal reve- 
nue there. Here Taft got his first business experience, a 
training which stood him in good stead later, when he was 
called to important judicial duties with almost constant 
supervision of large business enterprises, including railroads. 
That internal revenue office collected more than $10,000,000 
annually on whiskey and tobacco. It carried a good salary- 
more than Taft had ever earned before. But it was not at- 
tractive to him, and after ten months at it he resigned, to go 
back to practising law. 

He entered private practice but was soon brought into 
active employment in the Criminal Law as Assistant County 
Solicitor. After remaining two years at this work he re- 
ceived a tremendous surprise. Judson Harmon, judge of 
the Superior Court in Cincinnati, resigned his office to take 
up a federal post under President Cleveland. Joseph B. 
Foraker was Governor of Ohio. Taft had not trained in the 
Foraker political camp, but he had made a mark which 
Foraker had not overlooked. Several friends suggested him 
for the appointment, and Foraker saw tJiat it would be a good 
stroke. So he named Taft for the judgeship, very much to 
that young man's surprise as well as his delight. This was 
the ambition he had always held, and he recognized the 
appointment as a step toward his goal. 

About this time Mr. Taft began seriously considering the 
matter of marrying and his union with Miss Helen Herron 
was consummated in 1886. Miss Herron was the daughter 
of John W. Herron, an eminent Cincinnati attorney, who 
had been the colleague of Alphonso Taft and former Presi- 
dent R. B. Hayes. The families had been close friends 
and the young people had been companions from childhood. 
They spent several months in Europe and returned to Cin- 
cinnati to begin a home life that has never grown away from 
the serenity and simplicity of those early days. Mrs. Taft 
is an accomplished scholar and a lover of literature and 



214 ALPHONSO TAFT 

music. She wrote many very interesting magazine articles, 
and on retiring from the White House gave the world a book 
called " Four Full Years/ which is the most pleasing and 
detailed account of doings in the White House that has ever 
appeared. 

While Judge of the Superior Court in Cincinnati, Mr. 
Taft first came into contact with organized labor. He was 
called upon then to try a case involving a boycott of the firm 
of Moores & Co. by Bricklayers Union No. 3. It was not 
a great case in itself, but it has been made important by 
subsequent developments and especially by the assertion 
which has been made in recent years that Mr. Taft's atti- 
tude toward organized labor has lately undergone a change. 
The case was a suit for damages by the boycotted firm against 
the Bricklayers Union. It was not an injunction suit, nor 
did it involve a dispute between employers and employed. 
A jury had given Moores & Co. a verdict for $2,250, and 
the matter came before Judge Taft on motion for a new 
trial. In preparing his decision he made an exhaustive 
examination of the law with a special review of the English 
cases which had been cited by lawyers for the defense. 

After a full discussion of the case at bar and the authori- 
ties, Judge Taft made a statement of the rights of labor. 
He asserted the right of laborers to unite in withdrawing 
from their employment in order to embarrass their employer 
and thus force him to make better terms for them. He went 
further and declared the right of a labor union to impose 
penalties upon its members for refusing to comply with its 
regulations, or to expel them for failure to obey the union 
rules. 

" We do not conceive that in this state or country," he 
said, " a combination by workingmen to raise their wages 
or obtain any material advantage is contrary to law, pro- 
vided they do not use such indirect means as obscure their 
original intent, and make their combination one merely 
malicious, to oppress and injure individuals." 

But, it was not lawful, he declared, for a union to coerce 
an employer by boycotting those who dealt with him. Acts 



THE TAFTS OF TODAY 215 

of this character and intent may not be actionable when 
done by individuals, but they become so, he held, when com- 
mitted as a I'esult of combination. 

Judge Taft's decision was aiRrmed by the Supreme Court 
of Ohio without opinion, and is generally accepted as the 
correct exposition of the law of the secondary boycott; that 
is, a boycott against a stranger to the trade dispute. 

Now that is exactly the opinion of Mr. Taft today. It 
is fully set forth in some of his most recent public speeches, 
notably those at Seattle and at Cooper Union. 

After two years on the bench of the Supreme Court, Mr. 
Taft resigned to become solicitor general of the United States 
in the administration of President Harrison. He was then 
thirty-three years old and was one of the youngest men that 
ever held the important office of solicitor general. He tried 
many cases of great national import and always acquitted 
himself with credit and to the interest of the nation. After 
a short but brilliant career as solicitor gemeral he was named 
as Judge of the Sixth United States Circuit Court. 

Three great decisions were rendered by Judge Taft during 
this period which have become part of the well-established 
law of the land. They are the cases which distinguish his 
service as a federal judge. All have had far-reaching re- 
sults, but one, the last of the three, marked an epoch in the 
exercise of the power of the federal government to regulate 
and control interstate commerce. This was the famous de- 
cision in the Addyston Pipe case. The others were in labor 
cases, and in all he aroused the violent opposition of organ- 
ized labor by issuing injunctions which had tlie effect of 
breaking strikes. In later years labor has come to realize 
that Judge Taft merely expounded the law as he found it, 
and that in doing so, while he dealt a heavy blow to the then 
desire and purpose of the labor unions, he did it in a way 
which marked out for them for all time the clear path along 
which they might travel umnolested and unafraid. 

Perhaps the most important and far-reaching decision of 
Judge Taft was in the case of the Cincinnati Southern Rail- 



216 ALPHONSO TAFT 

road, then in the hands of a receiver appointed by Judge 
Taft. Debs started a general strike of railroad men and 
sent a man named Phelan to Cincinnati to tie up all the 
roads there, and Phelan, disregarding the fact that this road 
was under the direction of the court, ordered out its men. 
There was no grievance on the part of the men of the road 
over the conditions of their own employment, and when 
Phelan ordered them out on a sympathetic strike, that is a 
boycott, the receiver applied to the court for an injunction, 
which was issued ; Phelan, however, paid no attention to the 
injunction and openly boasted that he would defy it. 

" I don't care if I am violating injunctions," he said in a 
speech to the men. " N^o matter what the result may be 
tomorrow, if I go to jail for sixteen generations I want you 
to do as you have done." 

Upon that Phelan was, of course, cited for contempt of 
court and duly tried by Judge Taft. The intensity of feel- 
ing on the part of the men generally at that time is well 
remembered. They thronged the courtroom during the sev- 
eral days which the examination lasted, and there were open 
'and free threats as to what would happen to Judge Taft in 
case Phelan was punished. The situation seemed so critical 
that friends of Taft urged him to be extremely cautious, to 
go armed, to have a giiard, and even to send his decision to 
court to be read by some one else, so that he should not 
expose himself to the animosity of the men. 

In deciding the case Judge Taft gave a full review of the 
evidence brought out on the trial, and very carefully discussed 
its bearing to show how clearly it proved Phelan guilty of 
contempt. His discussion of the law involved followed the 
line of the decision in the case of a year before. He showed 
how the eanployees of the road had the right to quit their 
employment, but that they were not right in combining 
merely to injure their employer, or to compel him to with- 
draw from a profitable business with a third party in order 
to injure that party when the relation thus sought to be 
destroyed had no bearing upon the character or reward for 
their own services. The purpose of the combination in 



THE TAFTS OF TODAY 217 

which they were engaged was to tie up interstate railroads, 
not as a means of bettering the condition of their own em- 
ployment, but solely to injure tlie Pullman Company. That 
made it an unlawful combination in violation of the anti- 
trust law of 1890 as well as a direct interference with inter- 
state commerce, and therefore a violation of the commerce 
law. 

It was in this case that Judge Taft made a singularly 
lucid statement of the rights of labor unions which has been 
invoked several times in their behalf in other courts, and 
with success. 

Phelan was found guilty and sent to jail. The men lost 
the strike and their jobs. On being released from jail after 
serving his sentence, Phelan asked Judge Taft to request the 
receiver to reinstate the men in their old jobs. This Judge 
Taft did and the men went back to the service of the road as 
fast as places could be found for them. 

A position on the federal district bench is usually a step- 
ping-stone to membership in the Supreme Court. It was 
well understood that this was a place coveted by Mr. Taft, 
and there is no question as to the appointment having been 
made had not other avenues for his abilities presented them- 
selves. With characteristic devotion to duty he put aside 
his worthy ambition for a place on the bench of our highest 
court and accepted the other responsibilities, all of which he 
discharged with fidelity and rare tact. 

Our war with Spain, which ended in 1898, resulted in the 
acquisition by the United States of the Philippine Islands. 
These islands literally were forced upon us. We did not 
want them. President McKinley and William Howard Taft 
shared the feeling of many leading Americans that we ought 
not to retain them. Certainly, we should not permit them 
to be exploited for American benefit. But by force of cir- 
cumstances seemingly beyond our control they were ours. 
Grave responsibilities had come to us suddenly, and civiliza- 
tion and humanity demanded that we meet these responsi- 
bilities in an enlightened spirit. The dream of the Filipino 
had long been for independence, and with the realization of 



218 ALPHONSO TAFT 

this dream Taft sympathized. He saw clearly, however, 
that a people who for centuries had been under the yoke were 
not ready for sudden liberty and self-govemm.ent. They 
must first be taught self-restraint and reverence for orderly 
procedure. With broad and enlightened vision he saw 
early the possibility of lifting a feeble, ignorant people into 
the light of liberty. Looking into the future, he became 
reconciled to present American domination. 

When, therefore. President McKinley urged him to go to 
the Philippines as head of the civil conunission charged 
with the grave and important duty of establishing order and 
stability in the island, Mr. Taft laid aside his ambition for 
higher judicial honors and cheerfully accepted the " white 
man's burden." He came to realize the benevolence of the 
work he might be able to accomplish for the " little brown 
brothers " in the far-away possessions. 

It was a hard task he had undertaken, but he set about its 
performance with characteristic energy. He found a people 
sullen and antagonistic, many of them in open rebellion. 
The few Spaniards doing business in the islands w^ere sus- 
picious and disposed to be in opposition to American orderly 
government. 

On arriving at the islands Mr. Taft promptly said to the 
Filipinos that he had not come to give them present, nor 
any definite promise of future, independence. His mission 
would be to help them to learn self-government. He wanted 
to work with them, not against them. He invited their co- 
operation in all his efforts to lead them to ultimate freedom. 
It took some time to convince the radicals of his sincere 
desire to help them, but he finally won their full confidence. 
He did this by living with them, eating and drinking with 
them, standing all the time for their interests despite the 
opposition of almost all of his own countrymen there whom 
he would not permit to exploit the resources of the islands 
for their own benefit. He steadfastly held that the Philip- 
pines were for the Filipinos, He helped the natives to 
build schools and to own their own homes. He gave them 
as he could appointments in the civil service, and established 



THE TAFTS OF TODAY 219 

minor courts all over the islands with, natives as judges. He 
gave the islanders a practical demonstration of honesty and 
good faith. 

It is difficult for one to comprehend the tremendous 
achievement of Mr. Taft in the Philippines. Probably no 
other man in America was so well fitted by nature and by 
training for the great work he was called upon to perform 
in the far Pacific. 

While in the Philippines, he was thrice offered a place 
on the Supreme Court bench of the United States. Each 
offer was declined because he felt he was needed by his 
Filipino brother. 

Affairs in the islands having assumed a fairly stable con- 
dition, Mr. Taft felt free to accept the place of Secretary of 
War. As the Philippines were under the jurisdiction of 
this departiment of the government, he saw opportunities as 
Secretary to direct their affairs to a large extent. 

Fated as he seems to have been all his life to have great 
and important questions come to him for solution, this office 
proved no exception to the rule. His years of incmubency 
of the office were years filled with big things. His first great 
task was to build the Isthmian Canal. Before we could 
send our men down there to do the practical work of exca- 
vating and superintendence, the sanitary conditions of the 
isthmus must be changed. He called to his aid a group of 
experts and clothed them with autocratic powers. The canal 
zone soon was as safe a place of residence as many portions 
of the United States. As in the Philippines, there were 
hostile peoples along the proposed route of the canal and 
these had to be pacified. He made several trips to the dis- 
trict and was able to convince the people of Panama that 
our intentions were all of a friendly nature. Much of the 
credit for the successful completion of this great water high- 
way is due to Mr. Taft, who in its building displayed execu- 
tive ability of high order. 

While Secretary of War he was called upon to go to Cuba 
to rehabilitate the government there and to start it off on a 
sound footing. After freeing this island by war we allowed 



220 ALPHONSO TAFT 

the Cubans to form their own government. In less than 
three years personal rivalries and bad management got 
tbings into such shape tbat civil war was imminent. As 
protector and patron, tbe United States was compelled to 
intervene. Some one had to be sent there to sbow the 
Cubans how to govern tbemselves. iSTaturally the choice fell 
upon Mr. Taft, wbose ability along this line had been proven 
so abundantly in the Philippines. In September, 1906, he 
arrived in Havana, and using the same candid methods in 
Cuba that he employed with such beneficial effects in tbe 
Pbilippines, he soon established order in the island. A 
provisional government was appointed, an American " army 
of pacification " was sent tbere to preserve order, Cubans 
with American " advisers " were placed in the cabinet, and 
ofB-cers and citizens alike were instructed in the fundamental 
principles of self-government. The American protectorate 
was withdrawn early in 1909, and Cuba now seems to be 
enjoying a stable government. While Secretary of War, 
Mr. Taft made a trip around the world. In accordance with 
bis promise to the Filipinos, be returned to the islands to 
be present at the opening of their first national assembly. 
He spoke to tbem once more face to face, reminding them 
to beware of agitators who were clamoring for full freedom 
before they bad learned the rudiments of self-control. In 
Japan he reminded the people tliat " war between Japan and 
the United States would be a crime against modem civiliza- 
tion." 

Wbile in no sense a candidate, declaring that his ambition 
was not political, Mr. Taft was nominated by tbe Republi- 
cams, on June 18, 1908, as their candidate for President. 
He was easily elected in November. Soon after his in- 
auguration he convened Congress, in obedience to tbe party's 
platform as he understood it, for the enactment of a new 
tariff law. The result was the PajTie-Aldrich tariff, which 
be signed. He did not approve of some of its provisions, 
but accepted it as a whole. Tbe congressional elections of 
1910 went against the party in power. The President's 
advocacy of Canadian reciprocity also brought upon him 



THE TAFTS OF TODAY 221 

much adverse criticism, though it was a plank in the plat- 
form of the convention that nominated him. 

When the Democrats came into power in Congress, a bitter 
war was begun on the President, which continued for two 
years. Persistent opposition was given to his every pro- 
posal in connection with the tariif. However, during his 
incmnbency of the presidency he was able to secure much 
important legislation for which he asked. A postal savings 
system and a parcels post were established ; a constitutional 
amendment empowering Congress to impose an income tax 
was ordered submitted to^ the states ; publicity of campaign 
contributions was provided for; withdrawals of lands by 
executive order were authorized, a very practical step toward 
conservation. Other important laws put on the statute books 
were: Establishing a department of labor with a cabinet 
officer at the head of it; prescribing penalties for the white 
slave traffic; providing for the organization of a bureau of 
mines and a children's bureau, thus tending to improve labor 
conditions as to health, morals, and safety ; and other meas- 
ures of an equally progressive nature. 

A conspicuous feature of his administration was its im- 
partial prosecution of the tnists. With his fairness to all 
interests and his lack of prejudice, he maintained that all 
trusts should be prosecuted under the Sherman law, and not 
only those that had been especially flagrant violators or whose 
officers were persons widely known. This vigorous enforce- 
ment of the law was assailed in various quarters, but it had 
no effect on the President, who believed that laws were made 
to be enforced and obeyed. 

He was jealous of the prerogatives of his office and vetoed 
every attempt of Congress to attach ^' riders " to bills sent 
to him for approval in which it was sought to limit these 
prerogatives. 

Especially to be commiended was President Taft's handling 
of the delicate Mexican situation. He might easily have 
dra^m us into a war with the republic to the south had he 
been a man of less judicial temperament. He is an earnest 



222 ALPHONSO TAFT 

advocate of universal peace. His position on this question 
is well put bj him in a lecture at Yale in 1913 : 

" I am strongly in favor of bringing about a condition of 
securing international peace in which armies and navies may 
either be dispensed with or be maintained at a minimum size 
and cost ; but I am not in favor of putting my country at a 
disadvantage by assuming a condition that does not now exist. 
I am an optimist, but I am not a dreamer, or an 
insane enthusiast on the subject of international peace." 

As the time came for the selection of presidential candi- 
dates in 1912, considerable opposition manifested itself to 
the renomination of President Taft. After a stormy ses- 
sion of the convention the President was given the usual 
second nomination. The breach in the party was widened 
by this action and the Republicans entered the campaign 
without any hope of being successful. They met a crushing 
defeat at the polls in November. 

ISTot in any way soured by the disiaster that had overtaken 
him and his party. President Taft smiled in liis adversity, 
uttering no complaint, apparently glad to lay down the 
burdens of the office he did not covet in the first place, but 
the duties of which he had conscientiously performed as he 
saw them. 

In evidence of the patriotism and unselfish character of 
the man, it is well to state that a prominent New England 
senator went to the Chicago convention in 1912 carrying in 
his pocket a letter from President Taft in which the senator 
was authorized to withdraw from the consideration of the 
convention the name of the President at any time it might 
seem well to do so. President Taft was willing to put the 
welfare of his party and of his country above personal ad- 
vantage and vindication. 

No one can accuse Mr. Taft of insincerity or of political 
cowardice. He believes witii a great American of old that 
it is a greater honor to be right than to be President — or 
popular. His belief on this question is stated rather clearly 
in one of his Yale lectures when he was discussing the 
initiative and referendum. He said: 



THE TAFTS OF TODAY 223 

" Tte man from whom the people really secure the best 
service is the man who acts on his own judgment as to what 
is best for his country and for the people, even though this 
be contrary to the temporary popular notion or passion. The 
men who are really the great men of any legislative body are 
those who, having views of their own, defend them and sup- 
port them, even at the risk of rousing a popular clamor 
against themselves." 

It is interesting to note, also, in view of his experiences in 
the presidency, the following quotation from the same lecture: 

" Look back through the history of the United States and 
recount the number of instances of men who filled important 
oflS.oes and whose greatness is conceded today, and tell me 
one who wasi not the subject of the severest censure for what 
he had done, whose motives were not questioned, whose char- 
acter was not attacked, and who, if subjected to a recall at 
certain times in his official career when criticism had im- 
paired his popularity, would not have been sent into private 
life with only a part of his term completed." 

After retiring from the turmoil of the presidency, Mr. 
Taft accepted the Kent professorship of law in his alma 
mater, a position he is filling with eminent ability and use- 
fulness. May we not prophesy that in his case the com- 
pensations of peace are greater than the rewards of war? 

His work during and since the war have endeared Mr. 
Taft even more than ever to the American people. He gave 
his time patriotically and industriously to the cause of his 
country and gave his labor where it would count most with- 
out thought of self. 

One of the very effective instrumentalities for good dur- 
ing the war was the I^ational War Labor Board of which 
William Howard Taft and Frank Walsh were joint presi- 
dents. This board was made up of twelve members and 
was the outcome of the War Conference Board previously 
named. Its purpose was to prevent strikes or lockouts and 
to secure efficiency in production during the war. It met 
in the city of Washington and was conspicuously successful 
during the entire period of the war. The principle upon 



224 ALPHONSO TAFT 

which it acted was " The right of both employers and em- 
ployees to organize and to bargain collectively." No attempt 
was to be made to change existing relations as regards 
*' closed " or " open " shops and where women took the place 
of men they received equal pay. These principles and others 
of equal fairness and justice were laid down by the Con- 
ference Board and adopted by the National War Board. 
Mr. Taft was one of the presidents of each organization. 

The great labor performed and usefulness of the Board 
were acknowledged by all departments of government and 
by the people of the country. No instrumentality did greater 
work or was more thoroughly appreciated during the war 
than this board. 

A writer of distinction says truthfully and forcefully: 

" The World War has completely changed our standards 
and given us new ideas with which to measure our public 
men and Mr. Taft has passed the ordeal more successfully 
than most of the politicians who were decrying him eight 
or ten years ago. On the eternal issues as compared with 
the transient ones, Mr. Taft is now widely acclaimed as one 
of the most unselfish and dependable statesmen of our time. 
No hopes of political advancement, no petty ambitions to 
stand well with certain elements in the population could 
ever lead him to coquette with the forces of disloyalty; and 
in his sturdy soul there was no ground for the seeds of 
pacificism and social disintegration. . . . The Ameri- 
can people are now seeing the real Mr. Taft, and his unsel- 
fish patriotism has become one of our finest possessions." 

Mr. Taft was the first responsible statesman to take his 
stand for the arbitration of all disputes between nations, 
even those aifecting national interest and honor. He was 
the originator of the League of Nations and has stood for 
and worked for the principle without thought of party or 
personal advantage. His position on each phase of the case 
as it developed was one consistently in the interest of his 
own country and the cause of humanity. 

Mr. Taft has three children, two sons and one daughter. 
The daughter is Miss Helen Taft. She graduated from 



THE TAFTS OF TODAY 225 

Bryn Mawr College and also from Yale University. She 
was Dean of Bryn Mawr College for two years, and is now 
acting president of that college, in the absence of Miss 
Thomas, the president, who is on a trip around the world. 
Miss Taft is now endeavoring to raise a fund of about 
$2,000,000 for Bryn Mawr to increase the salaries of teach- 
ers and professors. Mr. Taft's elder son, Robert A. Taft, 
is an attorney in Cincinnati. He married Miss Martha 
Bowers, daughter of Mr. Lloyd Bowers, who was Solicitor 
General and one of Mr. Taft's closest friends. They have 
two children. The youngest son, Charlie Taft, enlisted as 
a private when the war broke out, and was sent over to 
Europe. He took a course in the Artillery School at Sau- 
mur, France, and won his commission there of first lieu- 
tenant. Although he missed his senior year at Yale Col- 
lege, he was given his degree. He has now returned to the 
Yale Law School and is studying law. He is also married, 
his wife being Miss Eleanor Chase, of Waterbury, Connecti- 
cut. They have one child. 

Mr. Taft has written tbe following books: 

" The Presidency, Its Duties, Its Powers, Its Opportuni- 
ties, and Its Limitations," published by Charles Scribner's 
Sons in 1916. 

" The United States and Peace," published by Charles 
Scribner's Sons in 1914. 

" The Anti-Trust Act and the Supreme Court," published 
by Harper & Bros, in 1914. 

" Popular Government," published by the Yale University 
Press in 1914. 

" Political Issues and Outlooks," published by Doubleday, 
Page & Company in 1909. 

" Ethics in Service," published by the Yale University 
Press in 1915. 

The following are some of the magazine articles which 
Mr. Taft has written: 

" The Monroe Doctrine, Its Limitations and Applica- 
tions." Saturday Evening Post, December 11, 1913. 



226 ALPHONSO TAFT 

" The Future of the Republican Party." Saturday 
Evening Post, February 14, 1914, 

'' Perfection of Aliens in Their Treaty Rights." Satur- 
day Evening Post, January 22, 1914. 

" The Courts and the ProgTessive Party." Saturday 
Evening Post, March 28, 1914. 

" Child Training in Good Citizenship." Youth's Com- 
panion, April, 1914. 

" Experiments in Federation for the Useful Settlement 
of International Disputes." Saturday Evening Post, April 
13, 1914. 

" Economy and Efficiency in the Federal Government." 
Saturday Evening Post, February 6, 1915. 

'^ For Young Men Who Would Be President." Youth's 
Companion, February 10, 1915. 

" The New Washing-ton." National Geographic Maga- 
zine, February 15, 1919. 

" Military and Naval Defenses of the United States, 
What They Are, and What They Ought to Be." Saturday 
Evening Post, JiTue 5, 1915. 

" Young Men in the Government Service." Youth's Com- 
panion, August, 1915. 

" Votes for Women." Saturday Evening Post, Septem- 
ber 11, 1915. 

" The Making of a Man." Youth's Companio7i, April 10, 
1917. 

Henry Waters Taft 

Henry Waters Taft, second son of Alphonso Taft and 
Louisa Maria Torrey, was born in Cincinnati on May 27, 
1859. He received his early education in the public schools 
of Cincinnati and entered Yale College in the fall of 1876. 
His scholarship record in college was creditable. He took 
several prizes and was selected as speaker both on the occa- 
sion of the " Junior Exhibition " and the Commencement 
exercises of his class. He was also active in athletics, play- 
ing football, rowing on class crews and eventually being a 
member of the University crews which rowed against Har- 
vard in the vears 1878 and 1879. He was a member of 



THE TAFTS OF TODAY 227 

Skull and Bones and of Psi Upsilon fraternity. After re- 
ceiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts from Yale in 1880, 
he studied in the Cincinnati Law School during the winter 
of 1880-81 and at the Columbia Law School in 1881-82, 
and was admitted to the bar of the State of New York in 
May of the latter year. In 1905 he received from Yale 
University the honorary degree of Master of Arts. Upon 
his admission to the bar he entered upon the practice of law 
in New York City and since then has continued in active 
practice in that city. 

Mr. Taft has not specialized in any particular branch of 
the law, but throughout a long and busy career has devoted 
himself to the general practice with such success that he has 
achieved an unquestioned leadership in the ranks of his pro- 
fession. A great deal of his time has been spent in appear- 
ances in court, both in courts of the first instance and in the 
appellate courts, including the highest courts of his state 
and the Supreme Court of the United States* For eighteen 
years in the earlier part of his practice he was counsel for 
the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. In 1905 
and 1906 he was Special Assistant to the Attorney -General 
of the LTnited States, in charge of the work of investigating 
the Tobacco Trust, from which position he resigned in Janu- 
ary, 1907, to be succeeded by Mr. McReynolds, now one of 
the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. 
He conducted the criminal prosecution against the Licorice 
Trust, the first criminal proceeding under the Anti-Trust 
Law, which resulted in the conviction of the defendant cor- 
porations but the acquittal of the co-defendants, the presi- 
dents of the corporations. Important questions of constitu- 
tional law were involved which ultimately were taken to the 
Supreme Court of the United States and resulted in the 
well-known decisions of Hale v. Henkel, 201 U. S. 43 ; 
McAlister v. Henkel, 201 U. S. 90, and United States v. 
MacAndrews & Forbes Co., 149 Fed. Rep. 823. These de- 
cisions are of widespread importance in anti-trust litigations. 

Mr. Taft also represented the United Fruit Company in 
anti-trust litigation, reported under the head of the American 



228 ALPHONSO TAFT 

Banana Company v. United Fruit Company, 213 U. S. 347, 
as well as the American Sugar Refining Company in a 
similar anti-trust litigation. In a recent case in the Su- 
preme Court of the United States he represented the Long 
Sault Development Company in an action involving inter- 
ests of a very large amount and important questions of con- 
stitutional law. This case was taken on writ of error to 
the Court of Appeals of the State of New York and to the 
Supreme Court of the United States, where, after reargu- 
ment, it was dismissed on the ground that there was no 
federal question involved. The case is reported in 212 
N. Y. 1, and 242 U. S. 272. Of late years Mr. Taft has 
also tried a considerable number of contested will cases of 
importance. He has also been much employed in railroad 
reorganizations, having been of counsel for the reorganiza- 
tion committees of the l^ational Railways of Mexico, the 
St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad and the A. B. & A. 
Railroad, and he has represented bondholders' or security- 
holders' committees of the Missouri Pacific and the Denver 
& Rio Grande Railroad. 

Mr. Taft is a member of the firm of Cadwalader, Wick- 
ersham & Taft, which succeeded the firm of Strong & Cad- 
walader, whose practice has been continuous since the family 
of Strong organized it in the year 1796. The firm has 
clients whom it has represented continuously since before 
1820. 

For many years Mr, Taft has been actively connected 
with the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, 
having served on a number of its committees, as chairman 
of its executive coinmittee, and as vice-president. He was 
president of the New York State Bar Association for the 
year 1919. He has been actively connected with the affairs 
of that association for some years and has served as chair- 
man of its Committee on Law Reform, its Coinmittee on 
Revision of the Civil Practice, and its War Committee. 
He is also a member of the American Bar Association and 
at the present time is the representative for New York State 
on its General Council, — the body which elects officers of 



THE TAFTS OF TODAY 229 

the association — as well as being a member of several of 
its committees. He is a member of the iSTew York County 
Lawyers' Association and has been one of its vice-presidents. 

Mr. Taft has written a number of pamphlets on a variety 
of subjects generally connected with, the legal profession. 
Among them are: " The Tobacco Trust Decisions," " State 
Control of Navigable Waters," " Recall of Decisionsi — A 
Modern Phase of Impatience of Constitutional Restraints," 
" The Bar in the War — Its War Committees and Its Par- 
ticipation in the Enforcement of the Selective Service Law 
and Regulations," " The League of N"ations," " The Treaty 
in the Senate," " What is to be Done with Our Railroads ? " 
" Aspects of Bolshevism and Americanism," and " Some 
Responsibilities of the American Lawyer." 

It was but natural that a man of such prominence and 
affiliations should take an active part in war work. He 
served as Chairman of the War Conmiittee of the Bar of 
the City of New York, which was an organization resulting 
from the amalgamation of war cotmmittees from some seven 
organizations of New York lawyers. Upon nomination by 
the Governor of New York he was appointed by the Presi- 
dent, Chaimian of the Legal Advisory Board for the Greater 
City of New York, under whose direction more than five 
thousand lawyers worked as members of the Board in carry- 
ing out the Selective Service Law. He also took an active 
part as a member of the following committees: War Relief 
Clearing House for France and Her Allies; War Work 
Committee of the Salvation Army; Greater New York 
Library War Council; American Conmiittee for Devastated 
France, Inc. ; Polish Victims' Relief Fund ; National Com- 
mittee, Committee of Mercy; French Tubercular Soldiers 
Relief Committee; Advisory Council, National League for 
Woman's Service ; Executive Committee, Committee on Loy- 
alty, Mayor's Coimnittee on National Defense, and Mayor's 
Committee of National Defense. 

Mr. Taft has been no less active in connection with edu- 
cational matters of his city and state. He was a member 
of the Board of Education of the City of New York from 



230 ALPHONSO TAFT 

1896 for a number of years afterwards, and also one of the 
trustees of tJie College of tlie City of N^ew York. In 1901 
Governor Roosevelt appointed hini a member of the Charter 
Revision Committee to revise the Charter of IsTew York City, 
and he acted as Chairman of its Committee on Education, 
Charities and Corrections. In this capacity he drafted the 
chapter of the New York City Charter dealing with the 
public school system of the city. He has also served as 
Chairman of the High School Committee of the Board of 
Education and was chiefly instrumental in establishing the 
high schools in the city of New York. 

Mr. Taft has shown by his actions that he considers it 
one of the duties of citizenship to take an active part in 
politics, and that this can be done without holding public 
office. In 1898 he was nominated by the Republican party 
as a candidate for Justice of the Supreme Court of the State 
of New York, but was defeated. In 1902 Governor Roose- 
velt tendered him the nomination as Justice of the Supreme 
Court of the State of New York to fill a vacancy, but he 
declined the appointment. Two years later, in 1904, he 
was tendered the nomination for Governor of New York 
by the Republican organization, but, after consideration, he 
also declined that. At difl^erent times Mr. Taft has been 
tendered the nomination for CongTess, the appointment as 
United States District Attorney for the Southern District 
of New York, Federal Judge in the same district, and other 
judicial positions, all of which he has declined. He repre- 
sented the Republican organization of the Fifteenth Assem- 
bly District of the County of New York as delegate to the 
Republican National Convention of 1920 in Chicago. At 
present he is Chairman of the Committee on National Af- 
fairs of the National Republican Club of New York City. 

Mr. Taft actively participated in the public discussions 
concerning the League of Nations and wrote several pam- 
phlets on the subject and communications to the newspapers, 
particularly the New York Times. He also collaborated 
with President A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard University, 
his brother, Hon. William H. Taft, and his partner, Hon. 



THE TAFTS OF TODAY 231 

George W. Wickersham, in the preparation of a book called 
" The Covenanter," dealing with the covenant of the League 
of Nations. 

As will be seen from the foregoing, Mr. Taft's life has 
been one of great activity, both in the practice of his pro- 
fession and in connection with matters of public interest. 
He stands at the top of his profession, is a leader in his 
political party, and sets an example in the performance of 
the duties of a citizen in connection with matters of public 
interest which maintains the traditions of his family. 

On March 28, 1883, Mr. Taft married Julia W. Smith 
of Troy, "N. Y. His two sons were in the military service 
during the war. His eldest son, Walbridge S. Taft, was 
Assistant Adjutant in the Field Artillery Central Officers 
Training School at Camp Taylor, Kentucky, holding a com- 
mission of First Lieutenant of Field Artillery when dis- 
charged, subsequently being commissioned as Major in the 
Reserve Corps, Field Artillery Division. A second son, 
WilliajQ Howard Taft, 2nd, was a First Lieutenant in the 
Field Artillery, and an aide on the staff of Brigadier-General 
Haynes, commanding general of the 64th Field Artillery 
Brigade, which trained at Camp Beauregard, Louisiana, and 
went to France in August, 1918, where it remained for some 
eight months, being still in training when the armistice was 
signed. He was later commissioned as Captain in the 
Reserve Corps, Field Artillery Division. 

Horace Dutton Taft 
HoKACE DuTTO^r Taft^ the third and youngest son of 
Alphonso and Louisa Maria Torrey Taft was born in Cin- 
cinnati, December 28, 1861. He received his early educa- 
tion in the old sixteenth district school in Cincinnati pre^ 
paring for college at Woodward High School. He entered 
Yale in 1879 graduating with the class of 1883 receiving the 
Master's degree (M. A.) in 1893. He spent the year after 
,graduation in Europe, staying some seven months with his 
parents in Vienna during the time of his father's ministei"- 
ship in Austria. After some three months study of German 



232 ALPHO^^SO TAFT 

in Hanover and several months in traveling about the con- 
tinent he returned to Cincinnati to carry on the family tradi- 
tion of the study of the law at the Cincinnati Law School. 
He was admitted to the bar of Ohio in 1885 and engaged in 
the practice for a year or more. The profession however did 
not appeal to him and he turned his thoughts towards teach- 
ing, expecting to start a private school, when he received the 
appointment of tutor of Latin at Yale college where he served 
in that capacity from September, 1887, to June, 1890. He 
gave up this work to found the " Taft School " at Pelham 
Manor, New York, where he remained until the summer of 
1893 when he moved the school to Watertown, Connecticut, 
acting as president and head master throughout that time. 
The school has been wonderfully successful and stands among 
the very first in the country in point of high standing, popu- 
larity and success. It began with ten boys in 1890, grew to 
thirty when the removal to Watertown took place and has now 
a membership of about two hundred and forty in addition to 
about twenty masters and assistants. During the thirty years 
that have elapsed since the founding of the " Taft School " 
much attention has been given to the matter of secondary 
education and it is safe to say that in the higher development 
of this subject, no one has taken a more active and useful part 
nor stands in a position of greater prominence, respect and 
affection than Horace Dutton Taft. He has succeeded in 
establishing for his school a position not unlike that of the 
great so-called "public schools" of England, being on at least 
equal terais with the best schools of the. country, many with 
the prestige of generations of school boys, and this result has 
been very largely brought about by sheer force of personality. 
Whatever may be the fact as to poets, business or professional 
men, it is certain that tJie teaching ability and temperament 
must be inborn and it is a matter of congratulation to the 
cause of secondary education and therefore of higher educa- 
tion that Horace Taft found his true vocation. 

Mr. Taft was married on June 29, 1892, to Winifred S. 
Thompson of Niagara Falls, who died in December, 1909. 



THE TAFTS OF TODAY 233 

Feances Louise Taft Edwards 
Mrs. Frances Louise Taft Edwards, youngest child and 
only daughter of Alphonso Taft, was born Jnly 18, 1865, 
in the city of Cincinnati. She was educated at Miss bourse's 
School in that city, at Miss Porter's School in Fannington, 
Connecticut, and at a school in Paris. She was a member 
of the family circle during the periods of Judge Taft's official 
life in Vienna and St. Petersburg. She used the great 
opportunities offered and completed her musical education, 
and acquired a thorough mastery of French and German. 
Her fluency in these languages was exceptional and was 
exceedingly helpful to her father and mother. She was in 
California with them during the long period of Judge Taft's 
last illness and there met Dr. William A. Edwards of San 
Diego, a very successful and prominent physician. They 
were married before Judge Taft's death. After some years 
they moved to Los Angeles, where they now reside. 

When the world war began Mrs. Edwards's great interest 
in France and all things French took her into work for the 
benefit of the French, work for which she received the hearty 
thanks of tlie French govemmemt and some decorations. 
When America entered the war she directed the Red Cross 
work in Los Angeles and vicinity with distinction and 
success. 



APPENDIX 

The Tafts of Yesterday, Embracing an Address De- 
livered BY Hon. Alphonso Taft at Uxbridge, Mass., 
August 12, 1874. 

Judge Taft's address delivered in TJxbridge, Mass., so fully 
told the story of the Tafts in America, especially the de- 
scendants of Robert Taft, that any further effort in that 
direction would be mere repetition. But in that masterly 
address the speaker hoped that future investigators might 
more completely connect the Tafts of America with the 
Taaifes of Scotland, as was then done by tradition and by 
vague historic mention. 

This has been done in ways that are interesting and fairly 
authentic. Professor S. H. Taft, of Iowa, gave earnest and 
intelligent research and his labors were supplemented by 
information from Savage's Genealogical Directory, from 
Hon. John Taffe, member of Congress from Nebraska in 
1872. Hon. John Taffe's father was born in Virginia, and 
his father came from Ireland. The family spelled the name 
Taaife until about the year 1800, when one of the a's was 
dropped. Other investigators, and the history of the period 
when Robert Taft left England and when his ancestors left 
Scotland, all contribute to our fund of knowledge. 

At the time of the rollicking and irresponsible Charles II, 
politics became mixed — very badly mixed — in Scotland. 
The older and younger branches of the Taaffe family took 
opposite sides in the controversy, and so acute became the 
condition that the younger branches renounced the family 
name and took the name of Taft. Of the Tafts, one went 
to England and was the ancestor of Robert Taft who came 
to America. Another went to Ireland and was the ancestor 
of the Irish Tafts, one of whom, Matthew, came to New 
England. Still another, induced by the preaching of Peter 
Payne, who carried the doctrine of Wycliffe to Bohemia, 
went to that - country. The Tafts of Bohemia must have 



236 ALPHONSO TAFT 

become a well-known family, as an eminent Bohemian visit- 
ing this country, when a guest of the Union League Club of 
Chicago, hearing the name of Taft as that of one of the mem- 
bers of the club, exclaimed, " Taft, I hear that name fre- 
quently in this country. It is a Bohem,ian name. Is this 
man one of our people ? " The distinguished visitor was 
informed that Taft was not thought of here as a Bohemian 
name. Many Scotch and English people beside the Tafts 
went to Bohemia, drawn by the promises of liberty and pro- 
tection which the rulers of that country were offering. It 
is interesting to find that King Podiebroad of Bohemia not 
only sought liberty and protection for his people, but actu- 
ally urged what today we would call a league of nations. 
He proposed a federation of Christian nations, having a 
parliament, a tribunal and an international military force 
to hear and settle all disputes among themselves and for 
protection against the pagan nations. 

One of the Bohemian Tafts went to Persia and estab- 
lished business there at a place which became the city of 
Taft and is the center of a great industry. 

Kindred and Friends: 

I have obeyed your call, and come from Ohio to address our tribe in 
its dear old home. At first I wrote a declination, but other counsels 
prevailed, and I concluded to accept the invitation. It has proved to 
me a labor of love, and if I could be assured that you would enjoy the 
hearing of my address as much as I have enjoyed the search, preparatory 
to writing it, I should be satisfied. 

Genealogical research is often derided; but it is fascinating, and ■ 
when pursued with reason has a wholesome and beneficial influence. ^ 
Nor is the value of that influence dependent upon the distinguished or 
undistinguished character of our ancestry. It is certainly much more 
agreeable and satisfactory to find them at least respectable. The very 
desire one feels as he reads the record to find evidences of good char- 
acter in his ancestors, and even of eminence, tends strongly to cherish 
in him a regard for the good and the eminent, however much he may be 
disappointed in looking for it among his own progenitors. But if he 
finds a sound basis of character in the beginning, and steady advance in 
culture afterward, each generation trying to make the condition of the 
next better than its own, he Avill receive a still more wholesome stimulus. 
No man can deliberately be the first to dishonor the name and blood of '^ 
his good ancestors. The study of genealogy, therefore, to a reasonable 



APPENDIX 237 

extent, whatever be the character of the retrospect, is salutary; pro- 
vided, always, that it be not prompted by mere vanity. Weak minds 
may sometimes feed their self-conceit on the deeds of their fathers. 
To be puflfed up with self-esteem on ancestral account is ridiculous. 
But it is no crime and no weakness to appreciate the character and r 
achievements of those who have preceded us, and to emulate their vir- 
tues. Nor is it unnatural or unreasonable that every man should inquire 
into his own antecedents. 

It is from a long distance I have come to the home of our family to 
talk of its history, character and condition. It may be like the ' ' carry- 
ing of coals to New Castle ; ' ' but I bring with me many hallowed 
associations. My blood was all derived from the Mendon of 1680, with 
its original ample boundaries. My ancestors on both sides came to 
Mendon on the re-settlement in 1680 of the town after King Phillip's 
war — Eobert Taft, carpenter; Grindal Rawson, minister; Samuel Hay- 
ward, yeoman, and Deacon Josiah Chapin. 

As we approach the final goal of life, we seem to be drawing nearer 
to our fathers, and the land that was their home becomes more hal- 
lowed. The Scripture says of one who has died, that he was ' ' gathered 
to his fathers. ' ' This expression is entirely in harmony with our senti- 
ments as we approach ' ' that bourne whence no traveler returns. ' ' The 
entire eight miles square of old Mendon is sacred ground to me. I ap- 
proach it with pleasure, linger among the mementoes of the past which 
I find here with delight, and feel myself at least a cousin to every 
inhabitant ; and this sweet delusion has grown upon me as I have be- 
come acquainted with those whose fortune it has been to abide in this 
our historic home. 

My wife, too, is a descendant of the Torreys, the Davenports and 
the Holbrooks of Mendon, and our children and our children's children 
will trace their origin to the same old Mendon of 1680. 

All the mementoes of the first dwelling places of the fathers are 
peculiarly precious to those of their descendants whose fortune it has 
been to seek other homes. The places where those fathers lived and 
the places where they died awaken the deepest interest, and their graves 
afford a real, though melancholy, pleasure. The whole family, wherever 
residing, is interested in the object of this meeting, and as time advances 
that interest will increase. The origin and early history of the race is 
likely to become more reliable and better understood in the future than 
it was soon after the death of the first settlers. At first they were 
busy with pressing duties subduing the uncultivated earth, guarding 
against their wily but cruel Indian foe, and building necessary improve- 
ments, all unconscious that their acts and lives in less than a hundred 
years would be historical. Had they known of the painstaking with 
which their posterity two hundred years after they were dead would 
seek evidence of the every-day acts and facts familiar to them, they 
would have left the record more perfect. 



238 ALPHONSO TAFT 

I should not have ventured upon the task which has been assigned to 
me, but for the researches of my honored father, Peter Rawson Taft, 
now deceased, the results of which he left in manuscript. Standing 
upon his shoulders, I had hoped to get a wider prospect, and to see 
some things that lay beyond his view. But wherever I have gone, he 
was sure to have been before me. His love of Uxbridge, the home of 
his birth and of his youth, gave him the glow of enthusiasm which 
genealogical research requires. In his old age, having leisure, he grati- 
fied his taste for these inquiries, and such was his success in pursuing 
them that I count it a rare good fortune if in any instance I have gone 
beyond him. When I came to years of memory, I learned from him to 
think of Uxbridge as the land of the blest. In the field and by the 
fireside, he would recount to me the happy days of his boyhood in Ux- 
bridge; would tell me of the places and scenes which were vivid in his 
mind, the three rivers that flowed towards the south, Mumford on the 
west, the wonderful Great River in the middle, and West River on the 
east; of the noted farms on the highlands, and on the river banks, al- 
ways including the old farm of his ancestors on the Great River in 
which he felt a regretful interest. On it he had ploughed and hoed, 
and harrowed and mowed, without fatigue, and with a boy's enthusiasm. 
All these hills, valleys, farms and houses he repeopled before my imagi- 
nation with neighbors, friends, uncles, cousins, brothers and sisters, asso- 
ciating their names with numerous anecdotes. And when afterward I 
visited Uxbridge and met the people whose names had been made thus 
familiar to my ear in my boyhood, it was impossible to realize that I 
was among strangers. 

The American branch of our family tree do not flatter our vanity with 
many brilliant public careers, but they have proved a vigorous and 
prolific stock, of which we have no occasion to be ashamed. The first 
of our progenitors in this country was Robert Taft. Of his birth we 
have no record ; that it was humble but respectable, I cannot doubt. He 
died on the 8th of February, A, D. 1725, at an age, as I think, of not 
less than eighty-five years. The date of his birth cannot be placed 
later than 1640. Sarah, his wife, is shown conclusively to have been 
born about that date. Wlio she was before the merger of her name in 
that of her husband by marriage, we know not. Every effort, hitherto, 
to trace her family beyond herself has failed. It is to be hoped that 
some one may be more fortunate hereafter. Of Robert's antecedents 
we have no direct evidence. His first appearance in America, as far as 
we have been able to trace him, was in connection with his house and 
lot in Braintree, which we find him owning in 1678. In the year 1679, 
he made arrangements to move to Mendon, first purchasing a "house 
lot" in Mendon, and then selling his house and lot in Braintree. The 
substance of the deed from him and his wife, of his house and lot in 
Braintree, was (Book 17, page 276, Suffolk Co., town records) "That 
Robert Taft of Braintree, in the county of Suffolk carpenter and Sarah 



APPENDIX 239 

his wife for and in consideration of eiglity pounds, sold and conveyed 
to Caleb Hobart of the same town, yeoman, a certain parcel of land 
with dwelling house, barn, and orchard thereon, then in the possession 
of the said Robert Taft in Monotoquod, within the bounds, or limits of 
Braintree aforesaid containing by estimation, twenty acres." The deed 
was signed and sealed by Robert Taft and Sarah Taft, his wife. The 
date of the deed was Nov. 18, 1679, while the date of the acknowledg- 
ment was March 12, A. D. 1679, apparently eight months before the 
execution. This anomaly, however, which presents itself repeatedly in 
the documents I may refer to, is explained by the law of England, 
which prior to the year 1752 commenced the legal year on the 25th day 
of March. 

No record of any kind has been found showing the source of Robert 
Taft's title. Nor is this strange, when we consider that so imperfect 
are the records of those early transactions that scarcely any title can be 
traced to its source on the record. There is one deed conveying an 
adjoining lot, which bounded upon this lot, as "the property of Robert 
Taft, ' ' spelling his name T-a-ff-e, and that deed was dated October 19, 
1678, a little more than a year before the execution of the deed to Caleb 
Hobart, showing that they held that property at least more than one 
year. Beyond that we have not as yet been able to go. 

Two months previous to the execution of the deed by Robert and 
Sarah to Hobart, he had purchased a "house lot" in Mendon, and 
received a deed from Col. Wm. Crowne, who ' ' for and in consideration 
of £90 of lawful money paid by Savill Simpson of Boston, cord wainer, 
and Robert Taft of Braintree, housewright, granted unto the said Savill 
Simpson and Robert Taft and their heirs, in equal halves, all that my 
forty acre house lot, situated, lying and being within the township of 
Mendham," (that was the English spelling of the name) "New Eng- 
land, and near unto the pond; therewith, forty acres of second division 
land adjoining thereto, together with all other lands, swamps, meadows 
and divisions of lands made or to be made." The deed is very formal, 
with full covenants. This was an important deed in the history of the 
Taft family. But how little could any of the parties realize the long 
line of events which were to flow from that single document, solemnized 
there in Boston on the 15th of August, 1679, The records show that Col. 
Crowne had been one of the original settlers of Mendon, and a leader 
among them, before the Indian war. But he never returned. This 
house lot had been improved before the war. 

Mendon was first organized as a town in 1667. It was far removed 
from the older settlements, in the forest, and surrounded by Indians. 
It had gone on successfully till 1675, when the war of King Phillip 
commenced, and all the inhabitants who were not killed were driven 
away, many never to return, and all their houses burned. Their min- 
ister. Rev. Joseph Emerson, never returned. After the war in 1680, the 



240 ALPHONSO TAFT 

resettlement commenced. And then, onr progenitor first appeared in 
the history of Mendon. 

There is a tradition that he was an adherent of the commonwealth, 
a Scotch Puritan, disgusted with the Cavaliers, and that in the troublous 
times consequent upon the rule of Charles the Second, he sought refuge 
from civil and religious tyranny in the forests of New England, — that 
he had been in the country longer than any extant records show, and 
had even been in Mendon before the Indian War. All this was possible. 
He was of age in 1660 when Charles II gained control of the British 
government, and had opportunity to be disgusted, and perhaps terrified, 
by the misgovernment and tyranny, civil and religious, of that monarch. 
The agitation in Scotland between the years 1660 and 1676, was full 
of annoyance and alarm. All that can be said of the tradition is, that 
no record has been found showing that Eobert Taft was in this country 
prior to 1678. The distance in time is not so great as to take away all 
the force of statements handed down from fathers to sons, and so far 
as this tradition makes Scotland the place from which Eobert first came, 
it is probably correct. 

And here I must be permitted to quote from an interesting letter 
written by the late Frederick Taft, Esq., of Uxbridge, to his grand- 
nephew, Henry W. Taft, Esq., of Pittsfield, dated April 10th, 1838. He 
says, ' * How long since I cannot tell, three brothers by the name of Taft 
left Scotland in troublous times and came into England. One of them 
settled in Ireland. One of his descendants came over and settled in 
Upton, bringing three or four sons. They were formerly called "the 
Irish Taf ts. ' ' One of the three brothers settled in England, some of 
whose descendants have settled in South Kingston, Rhode Island. Yet 

have never heard of them till lately, when a young man from there 
worked for me, whose mother was a Taft. The name was numerous and 
wealthy. 

"The third brother, who was my father's great grandfather, came to 
America and settled, I suppose, in Mendon, in this State. His given 
name I never learned. His children and grand-children and descend- 
ants were very numerous and some of his descendants are probably 
settled in almost every State in the Union. My grandfather, Israel 
Taft, settled in Mendon, and when Upton was incorporated was set off 
to Upton." 

Mr. Frederick Taft, the writer of this letter, was born in 1759, two 
years before the death of the first Daniel Taft, and nine years before 
the death of Benjamin, sons of the first Eobert; and Samuel Taft, the 
father of Frederick, was born in 1731, when all the five sons of the 
first Robert were in active life. He had failed to learn, or to recollect, 
the name of the founder of our race, on this continent. But the tradi- 
tion coming down so directly ought to be valuable as to the nationality 
of the family. I have made some effort to test the truth of these state- 
ments. So far as the temporary settlement of one branch of the family 



APPENDIX 241 

in Ireland is concerned, we find confirmation in the fact that in 1728, 
about fifty years after Eobert Taft came to Mendon, Matthew Taft did 
come from the north part of Ireland and settled in that part of Hop- 
kinton, which is now in Upton, Some of the descendants of Matthew 
Taft reside still in Upton ; some reside, and have resided for many years, 
in the State of Vermont; and some have emigrated to and live in the 
State of New York. They all have a tradition that they came from 
Scotland and tarried but a few years in Ireland. As to the supposed 
emigration from England of the second brother, or his descendants, and 
their settlement in South Kingston, R. I., it wants confirmation. We 
have found none bearing the name whom we could not trace to Robert, 
except the descendants of Matthew. If those who settled in South 
Kingston were in fact " numerous and wealthy," as Mr. Frederick Taft 
learned from "the man who worked for him," it is remarkable that 
they have not been reported to us. It is possible that, unlike the de- 
scendants of Robert, they proved unprolific, so that, though once planted 
in Rhode Island, their race has run out. We cannot ascribe such a 
result to the confined limits or unfertile character of that State, for 
Robert Taft's descendants have flourished there as well as elsewhere. 

Confirmatory of this general recollection of Mr. Frederick Taft, that 
the emigration was immediately from England, I will refer to a state- 
ment left by the late Bazaleel Taft, Esq., written in 1837. 

He says: "My great-grandfather, Daniel Taft, came from England 
and settled on the south-east side of Mendon pond. My great-grand- 
father had four brothers come with him, Thomas, Robert, Joseph and 
Benjamin. The two former settled nigh him in Mendon, on the easterly 
margin of Mendon pond." 

' ' Joseph located himself on the estate now occupied by Zadock Taft, 
within what was then Mendon, now on the Providence road in Uxbridge. 
Benjamin settled on the estate on which I now reside. My grandfather, 
Josiah, lived on the farm since owned and improved by my father, 
Bazaleel Taft, and given by him to my sister, Chloe Thayer, and on which 
she and her family now reside. ' ' 

In estimating the value of this kind of evidence, we have to consider 
the intelligence of the men, the subject of the tradition, and their 
opportunities for knowing whereof they have spoken. 

The writer of the last statement differs from the writer of the 
former, in not going so far back as to Scotland, nor does he appear to 
know that there was a first Robert, of whose existence Frederick was 
aware, although he did not know his name. But these two statements 
are not inconsistent. They both make the immediate emigration to 
America from England. 

Daniel Taft, one of the five original brothers, lived to the age of 84 
years and died in 1761. Esquire Bazaleel, the elder, was born in 1750, 
eleven years before the death of his grandfather Daniel, and eighteen 
years before the death of Benjamin, the brother of Daniel, and he him- 



242 ALPHONSO TAFT 

self lived to be eighty-nine years of age, and died in the year 1839. He 
was well known by many now living. These two lives of Daniel and 
Bazaleel spanned the entire space. It is impossible to doubt that the 
first Daniel Taft, who, if he did not come vdth his father, lived with 
him in Mendon forty-five years, knew whence he came. He must have 
known what his father said on the subject, and must have communicated 
it, not once but a thousand times, and so it became a tradition. The 
younger Bazaleel must have heard his father's account of the same. 
And here I may add m^y own memory of what the elder Bazaleel, in the 
summer of 1834, informed me. It was my first visit to Uxbridge. He 
told me substantially the same thing as is stated in the paper I have 
now read. He was then 84 years of age. These traditional statements, 
together with some further considerations arising from the etymological 
derivation of the name, make it quite clear that we must go to England 
or Scotland to look for the origin of our race. 

If we regard the name itself, it leads us to the same conclusion. Mr. 
Jameson, in his "Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language," 
a work of high authority, gives the word "Taft" as a good Scotch 
word, meaning "a. messauge, or dwelling and ground for household 
uses. " " This term, ' ' he further remarks, ' ' seems radically the same 
with the English ' Toft. ' " I know of no other language in which the 
name has significance. With the broad pronunciation of the Scotch 
there is not much difference in sound between the Scotch "Taft" and 
the English ' ' Toft. ' ' Though evidently from the same root, the mean- 
ing is slightly different in England and in Scotland. In England, ac- 
cording to Webster, one definition is, "a grove of trees," and another 
is "a place where a messuage has stood, but is decayed probably from 
the root of Tuft ; ' ' and Webster gives its derivation in the Danish 
language, as from " tof te or tomt," to which also Jameson traces 
"taft" in the Scottish dialect. 

It has been sometimes thought that the name was Irish, because there 
is a well-known and distinguished family in Ireland of the name Taaffe, 
or Taffe, or Taflf, or Taaf, in all which forms the name is spelled, though 
always pronounced in the same manner and as one syllable. It has 
been supposed that the change from Taaflfe to Taft was so slight that 
the names may well be regarded as the same and this is true. At one 
time I thought there was great force in the argument to show that our 
race sprung from Ireland and was Irish. There are very few English 
names which have not in the last two hundred years undergone greater 
modifications than this would be. But it is to be considered that the 
name is as liable to be changed from Taft to Taff, as from Taff to Taft. 

The question after all is. Where does the name belong — where is its 
home? and whence did our family come? I am not disposed to contro- 
vert the hypothesis that the names are the same. But whence did 
Eobert Taft bring it to America? 



APPENDIX 243 

This is a point on which I might enlarge, if it were profitable to use 
your time today in this way. 

Abbe MacGeoghan, in his history of Ireland, which was written in 
French, and which is regarded as good authority, and generally accu- 
rate, says (page 274) : 

"The Taffes of Ireland are originally from England; their first ap- 
pearance in Ireland was at the end of the 13th century." Members of 
this family reached great honor and power. Mr. Lodge, in his book of 
the British Peerage and Baronetage, says that, "King James I gave 
Wm. Taaflfe much; also Queen Elizabeth gave him preferment;" that 
"Sir John Taflfe, his son, was knighted in his father's lifetime, and 
the King in 1628, having received commendation of his virtues and 
abilities, and that he was a principal gentleman of an ancient family 
of England, and well affected to his Majesty's interest, was pleased to 
advance him to the dignity of Baron of Ballymore and Viscount Taffe 
of Corren, by Patent, bearing date at Dublin, Aug. 1, 1628, and July 
14th he took his seat in the House of Peers." 

One of the feats of arms for which Capt. Wm. Taffe received prefer- 
ment from Elizabeth was the taking of Blarney Castle; and from the 
account of that transaction given in history, it would seem to have been 
taken as much by blarney as by military prowess. But it was an im- 
portant service to the crown of England, and Queen Elizabeth and King 
James so regarded and rewarded it. 

I refer to these authorities not to claim anything more than plebian 
blood, by identifying ourselves with the nobility of Ireland; but to 
show that the historical result is the same, whether our ancestors came 
directly from England, Scotland or Ireland; and that the change in the 
spelling may as well have been from "Taft to Taffe," when the family 
now in Ireland left England, as from "Taaffe" to "Taft," when our 
ancestors settled in Mendon, and when Matthew settled in Upton. 

Some future genealogical explorer will travel in England, Scotland 
and Ireland and search the records there to prove where this name 
belongs, and to identify if possible the place from which Eobert Taft 
came to this country, and whether or not Sarah came with him. 

But yielding to the tradition among the descendants of both Eobert 
and Matthew such weight as we cannot well deny, we must conclude that, 
though these families may all be of the same original stock, the emigra- 
tion of the family now in Ireland, from England or Scotland, was sev- 
eral centuries earlier than that of Robert Taft, who came directly to this 
country from the original home of the race. 

On the 29th of July following the purchase from Crowne, a partition 
was made betM'een Savil Simpson and Robert Taft, by deed, in which 
Robert Taft is described as "late of Braintree, now of Mendham, car- 
penter." This deed gives to Simpson a certain field belonging to the 
said land, commonly called ' ' Pondfield ; ' ' and it gives to Robert Taft 
the field known as the "Fortfield," and says that both of said fields, 



244 ALPHO^^SO TAFT 

viz., "Pondfield and Fortfield are parted, the one from the other, by 
the highway as it now lies." Now it happens that these two fields, the 
' ' Pondfield ' ' and the ' ' Fortfield, ' ' are still divided by the same road 
"lying" as it did then. There Avas very early some structure on the 
Fortfield, which was called and perhaps used as a fort. There are now 
on the high part of the tract, large rocks which appear to have belonged 
to something of the kind. But this name and this fort antedate King 
Phillip 's war. 

The records of the proceedings of the settlers before the war, distin- 
guish these two fields in the same way, in assigning them to Col. Wm. 
Crowne. It is satisfactory to be able to find the field on which the 
fortunes of the Taft family were begun; that on which the first house 
was raised, and that on which the second was erected. It adds to our 
satisfaction to find the descendants of Eobert Taft still cultivating his 
lands and dwelling there. It is seldom true in this country that the 
descendants of one man hold for two hundred years the first homestead. 
Mr. Alanson Taft, in the sixth generation from the first Robert, owns 
and resides upon the homestead, the original Fortfield, a site as beauti- 
ful now as it was then, himself descended from the first Thomas, and 
his wife descended from Robert, junior. 

If anyone supposes that the purchase of a forty-acre "house lot" 
was the purchase of but forty or eighty acres of land, he has an inade- 
quate idea of the transaction. 

The project of founding a settlement was formed as early as 1662, 
and about forty men concerted together for the purpose. Part of them 
were from Weymouth and part from Braintree. Their records began 
several years before they had a legal organization as a town. These 
forty men each had a forty-acre house lot with all the rights, which 
under their organization appertained to such ownership. It appears 
really to have been an ownership of one-fortieth of all lands in the 
town, to be divided out as they should want them to improve or to sell, 
and this right amounted to more or less, as the owner was more or less 
careful to draw and locate lands at every division. It would seem that 
the proprietors did not all of them draw and locate their share of the 
lands divided. The more lands they had, the more taxes to support the 
minister and to build the meeting house, and the more work on the high- 
ways they would have to pay. Robert Taft, and his sons after him, 
were prompt to draw and locate their share of every division. The 
prime house lot was nominally forty acres. But it had meadow lands 
attached {o it, and it had what was called the "great lot," which was 
generally located in some other place, and was much larger. 

The prime idea would seem to have been that every proprietor should 
have all the land he needed as incident to his house or house lot; and 
then that there should be divisions from time to time of the unappro- 
priated lands as they should determine. Care was taken that none 
should be let into proprietorship who were not approved by the com- 



APPENDIX 245 

munity. The lot which each dwelt upon was sometimes called his 
doubling lot, or the lot located on the "prime division." It was the 
lot that showed his proper share in future divisions. The order in which 
they should choose lands for locations was determined by lot, so that, as 
the resolutions of the town expressed it, ' ' it should be by Divine Provi- 
dence disposed to them, for all the right they are legally seized of. ' ' 

As Eobert Taft was a housewright, the building of his house was 
promptly done. Its site on the "Fortfield" was most eligible and is 
well known. It rose gently from the pond, standing at a graceful and 
yet convenient distance. It was all the more beautiful as a water- 
view at all. The land itself was excellent and of such a commodious 
grade as to be profitably cultivated. It is easy to imagine Robert and 
Sarah in their old age, after having labored incessantly to clear and 
cultivate their house lot, sitting in their front door and admiring the 
beautiful sheet of water spread out before them, and felicitating them- 
selves on having the only site in Mendon combining all the desirable 
qualities found in this. They might have gone further and congratu- 
lated themselves on the fact that, by encompassing this beautiful lake 
by their lands and their houses, they had identified it with the history 
of their lives in Mendon, and made it a family monument, as imperish- 
able as any shaft of stone. * ' It bore no inscription from which the 
future antiquarian should wipe the dust, ' ' but it was so identified with 
that pioneer father and those pioneer sons that it needed none to tell 
their descendants of the hardships they had endured to found a family 
in the forests of Mendon. 

Our first progenitor in this country was a plain, unlettered man. He 
was a carpenter, a self-made man. The indications are that he followed 
the business in early life efl&ciently; for when he came to Mendon, being 
about forty years old, he brought the means to buy land. Though de- 
scribed as a joiner, he had five sons, and was in a new country of farms. 
He comprehended the situation. There was a demand for farmers, not 
joiners. Every man in that primitive age and country was his own 
joiner. Eobert reared his sons to be farmers, and became a farmer 
himself. He understood the main strength of a farmer. It was land. 
He had a farm even in Braintree, however short his stay there. He 
secured land in Mendon before moving his family, and after his settle- 
ment in Mendon he pursued the same policy on a larger scale. It ap- 
pears from the proprietor's book at Mendon that Robert Taft, after 
settling in Mendon, laid out and located and purchased numerous and 
large tracts of land, lands in his own name and lands in the names of 
all his sons. It would be tedious to enumerate his appropriations and 
his purchases. They were in all parts of the town, but more extensively 
in the south and west. The father and the sons had the same appetite 
for land, and by its gratification they secured themselves and their de- 
scendants against any occasion for emigrating for a long time to come. 
The first generation accumulated, so far as we can learn, and wasted 



246 ALPHONSO TAFT 

little or nothing. They built houses and cleared and cultivated their 
lands. The young men, as soon as they arrived at the proper time of 
life, married discreet and industrious young vpomen, and the forests of 
Mendon and Uxbridge blossomed as the rose. If they desired to live in 
good old Uxbridge or Mendon, they had permanent homes on which to 
live. If our tribe emigrated less than other families, for a time this is 
accounted for by the foresight and energy of the fathers rather than 
by the want of those qualities in their sons. 

So extensive were the jiossessions of Robert Taft and his sons that 
from Mendon Pond, which they encompassed, and which then and for 
many years afterward was known as Taft's pond, and is still so desig- 
nated on the county map, they stretched away to the State line on the 
south, and across all the three rivers, and several miles beyond toward 
the west. It is said that his purchases west of the Blackstone covered 
an area of two and a half miles square, nor is this at all incredible, if 
we regard the proprietor's book, and if there is room for laying out so 
much land on that side of the river without encroaching upon the town 
of Douglas. 

But there is one other real estate transaction of Robert Taft which 
has excited my curiosity, and which I cannot afford to omit. In Book 
30, page 165, of Suffolk county records, is recorded a deed dated March 
10, 1713, by Paul Dudley, William Mumford and six others, conveying 
to Robert Taft one-tenth part of a tract of land eight miles square, 
reciting that his excellency Joseph Dudley, Governor, agreeably to an 
order passed by the council and assembly at Boston, in 1703, had granted 
to the grantors a certain tract of waste land purchased of the Indian 
native proprietors, situated in the Nipmuek country, between the towns 
of Mendon, Worcester, New Oxford, Sherbourne and Marlboro, of eight 
miles square wherein is included a tract of four miles square, called 
Hassanamisco, owned by the Indians, they to have and to hold the land 
by the name of the town of Sutton, and that Robert Taft of Mendon, 
was equally interested with William Mumford and others, who consti- 
tuted the company to whom the grant was made, and was one of the 
first purchasers of said tract of land from the Indians, although not 
mentioned in said grant, and the said Paul Dudley and company above 
named "for and in consideration of the undoubted right of the said 
Robert Taft in the premises, ' ' convey one full tenth part of said tract 
of land, to be known as the town of Sutton, subject, among other con- 
ditions, to that of "paying to the Queen one fifth of the gold and silver 
that should be found." The negotiation for the purchase of this tract 
of land had been made with John Wampus, the Indian sachem; and the 
negotiations had been had as early as 1681-3, not long after the settle- 
ment of Mendon; and after the purchase had been negotiated with the 
Indians, a much more tedious negotiation had to be made with the 
colonial government to have their purchase recognized. There were 
many who disputed the title of John Wampus and his tribe. There are 



APPENDIX 247 

siuulry strong petitions on file in Boston both for and against the recog- 
nition of the purchase. Robert Taft's name did not appear among the 
purchasers; but this deed settles the question that he was a part-owner, 
and undoubtedly bore an important part in the original negotiations 
with John Wampus for the land. I can find no other ground for the 
complaint which was made against him for irregular trading with the 
Indians. 

The purchase of Sutton is mentioned by Eev. Peter Whitney in his 
history of the County of Worcester, published in 1793. On page 89, he 
says: "The tract of land (Sutton) was originally purchased by a 
number of gentlemen of Sachem John Wampus and his company, of 
Indians, who claimed it. Wampus first reserved four miles square for 
his countrymen, the Indians, which they called Hassanamisco. This is 
now Grafton." Eobert Taft was at least one of the principal pur- 
chasers of this large and valuable township of land; a township which, 
at the time Mr. Whitney wrote (1793), had more inhabitants than 
Worcester itself. Robert's dealing with the Indians undoubtedly had 
significance. But there is no evidence that the Indians ever complained 
of any injustice, or that any injustice or harm was done by him to any- 
body; however, his negotiating with them might have excited the jealous 
apprehensions of some of his neighbors, at a time when the bitter mem- 
ories of the Indian war were still rankling in their minds. 

But the government finally recognized the validity and propriety of 
the purchase and ratified the title. His interest in the town of Sutton 
he afterward disposed of to different parties. 

The first general town meeting held in Mendon was on January 3rd, 
A. D. 1680, when the town chose their selectmen, and Robert Taft was 
one of them. This was his first appearance in Mendon. 

On the fourth day of the second month, the town held another meeting 
and chose Robert Taft as one of a committee to take care that the 
building of the minister's house be carried on and finished at or before 
the 25th of December next. 

The first list of names assessed for the minister's support that is 
shown by the records was in 1685. Robert Taft is among them, and 
pays a good rate. A committee was appointed to build a meeting house 
and raise the money. He was on that committee. From time to time 
he was elected as one of the Selectmen, and was frequently placed on 
important committees. From time to time, by vote of the town, he, 
with Deacon Josiah Chapin, was placed on a committee "to instruct the 
selectmen." The town relied on his judgment in practical matters. 
In 1698 he was on a committee, with Captain Chapin, "to view the 
streams of the town, and select a place for a corn mill." The land he 
and his sons had laid out and purchased lay on both sides of the Black- 
stone and extended westwardly. They had found out that the best lands 
they had were on the west side of the river, and they were busily en- 
gaged in improving them. They projected a bridge. It was a public 



248 ALPHONSO TAFT 

matter, but it was more important to them than to ail tlie rest of the 
town. The town was not ready to vote money, but it did vote ' ' that 
Mr. Taft and his sons should be freed from working at the highways 
in case they build a bridge over the Great Eiver to their land on the 
west side of said river, until other men 's work come to be proportionable 
to theirs in working upon the highways." This was in 1709. The 
bridge was built and was probably the first bridge ever built over that 
river. The site is still known, though abandoned as a site for a bridge, 
the river having cut another channel and made the western landing of 
the bridge on an island. The road which they excavated to the old 
bridge is plainly visible, though overgrown with shrubbery and trees. 
But for many years it was the crossing for the public as well as for the 
Tafts, and though known as "the bridge the Tafts built," the public 
had no other. In a few years the town began to feel the absence of the 
Tafts in the repairing of highways, and I suspect that if the truth was 
known the town had become sick of its bargain. 

In 1721 the town voted "to choose three men to discuss with Mr. 
Taft and his sons, with reference to their falling in \vith the town to 
work at highways, and to make report to the town on what terms they 
will fall in, at the next meeting." The next meeting was called to 
consider and resolve what to do with respect to repairing the Great River 
Bridge, and about the Tafts "falling in" with the town to work at the 
highways. The town met and proposed to the Tafts an arbitration, 
which was declined, whereupon the town ' ' voted that Mr. Taft and his 
sons, that had been freed by the town from working at the highways 
on account of building the above said bridge, do henceforth work at the 
highways equally with the rest of the inhabitants of the town, and that 
the surveyors warn them to work at the highways as other men, and on 
their refusal to prosecute them for their neglect, and that the town will 
stand by them in their prosecution." We hear no more of the ques- 
tion. The Tafts, probably, were good natured about it and "fell in," 
not caring to press farther the operation of their remarkable contract 
with the town. They could well afford to do so, such was their monopoly 
of the good lands on the west side of the river. 

No alienation or disaffection resulted from this harmless controversy. 
"The bridge the Tafts built" continued to be "the bridge over the 
Great River," and the only one for twenty years; and then in 1729 the 
Tafts built the second bridge a short distance below the first. This 
also was done in concert with the town. But instead of voting to free 
them from highway taxes ' ' till other men 's work come to be propor- 
tionable, " the town of Uxbridge voted to contribute sixty pounds to- 
ward the expense, the Tafts agreeing to build and keep the bridge in 
good repair for seven years. This was undoubtedly a better bargain 
for the town than the former. But the bridging of the "Great River" 
still remained a family of the Tafts. 

There can be no doubt of the weight and usefulness of the first 



APPENDIX 249 

Eobert in the affairs of the town as well as of his discretion in the 
conduct of his own affairs. 

In 1693, his son Thomas appears upon the tax list. In 1695, Robert, 
junior, was taxed. In 1699, Daniel was taxed, and the Taft family 
paid more taxes than any other. In 1703, Joseph was taxed. In 1713, 
a drawing was had for the sixth division of lots, and Robert, Thomas, 
Robert, junior, Daniel, Joseph and Benjamin all appeared on the roll. 
Benjamin does not appear on the list of those taxed to support the 
minister at all in Mendon. That circumstance is explained by the fact 
that he was reported as a Quaker, and the Quakers were exempt from 
military duty and from supporting any ministers but their own. Not 
many years after these boys began to pay taxes, they began respectively 
to take a share in town affairs; and the father, yielding his place to 
them, gradually receded from the public eye till Februaiy 9th, 1725, 
when he departed this life. 

The records of that early time were imperfect. We have no record 
of their births or marriages, and are fortunate if we find when they 
died. It was a rare circumstance if any of those hard working men 
who were founding the fortunes of their country as well as their own, 
recorded anything relating to the past, and their verbal communications 
were lost in their graves. 

In my recent search in the archives of Suffolk county, I found the 
original will of the first Robert Taft, in an enclosure with several other 
interesting documents. The will was dilapidated and in several pieces. 
But after collecting the pieces and restoring them to their places, there 
was no difficulty in reading it. 

Directly under the signature of the testator and the witness was 
written the probate of the will as made by Sarah, the widow, on the 
4th of March, 1725, authenticated by the Judge of Probate, though not 
transcribed upon the record. The will was written in a good plain hand, 
and in the same enclosure was the inventory of his estate, evidently 
written in the same hand. Among the items of the inventory were: 
' ' In primis, his purse £75, 15s, ' ' and the other items were such as to 
give some idea of the simple and yet comfortable manner of life of this 
aged couple who had long since given each of their sons ample farms 
by deeds of gift, and in fact distributed among them the larger part 
of their estate. The appraised items amount, as I add them, to £251, 7s, 
leaving out ' ' the bible and other books, ' ' the valuations of which are 
torn off and lost. It is to be remembered that shillings then were more 
valuable than pounds are now. The most interesting document con- 
tained in the inclosure, however, was a petition of the widow, Sarah 
Taft, to the Judge of Probate, dated Feb. 20, 1725, asking to be ex- 
cused from personal attendance to prove the will: 

"Whereas by the last will and testament of my beloved husband, 
your poor petitioner is made sole executrix thereof, and I being advanced 
through Divine Providence unto the age of eighty and five years, so that 



250 ALPHONSO TAFT 

I am rendered incapable of taking so great a journey upon me as to 
appear personally before your Honor, the distance being near forty 
miles; that your Honor would be pleased to excuse your aged petitioner's 
non-appearance, and that the will may be proved; and that your Honor 
would permit and allow of my oldest son, Thomas Taft, being co-admin- 
istrator with me, to assist, that I may the better be enabled to act and 
transact, is the prayer and humble request of your petitioner." 

(Signed) "Sarah Taft." 

Sarah also appeared before Josiah Chapin, Esq., on the 17th of Feb- 
ruary, 172.5, and made a formal acknowledgment of this petition as her 
voluntary act. This is the first authentic evidence we have had of the 
age of these our first progenitors, and that Sarah, to whom the testator 
by his will gave all his property, was alive and caused the will to be 
proved. "When I saw the will, I had not seen the handwriting of any 
of the sons. But having since seen many original documents written by 
Daniel as well as other of the sons, I am satisfied that the will and the 
inventory were in the handwriting of his son Daniel. 

In November of the same year, the record shows that Thomas applied 
for letters of administration, and the court made an entry reciting the 
fact that said Sarah Taft having deceased, the court appointed Thomas, 
the oldest son, sole administrator. The administration bond of Thomas, 
with his son, Eleazer Taft, and Jacob Aldrich as his sureties, is with 
the will duly executed. Both Eobert and Sarah, therefore, died in 1725. 

The recorded deeds of gift to his sons in consideration of his love and 
affection, bespeak a father who was not the last to appreciate the pru- 
dence and enterprise of his own sons. These dispositions of his property 
were worthy of a patriarch. He trusted his sons, and they were all 
worthy of his confidence. By these generous and timely gifts, in which 
Sarah shared, for she had joined her husband in executing the deeds, he 
had shown the strength of his love for his sons. By his will he showed 
the undoubting confidence he placed in his faithful Sarah. ' ' In primis, 
to my beloved wife, Sarah, whom I likewise constitute my sole executrix, if 
she shall survive me, I give all and singular my real and personal estate, 
together with my moveables, viz.: My lands, houses and chattels, and 
other effects by me possessed and enjoyed." He then gave a small 
money legacy to the oldest daughter of each son, beginning with Sarah, 
the oldest daughter of Thomas, adding to each eight shillings "to pur- 
chase for her a bible." Thus, he remembered each son in his oldest 
daughter, who was made the representative of each of these large fami- 
lies, to receive this token of grand parental affection. He then added, 
"To his grand-daughter, Eebecca Taft, by reason of her living and 
dwelling with him," the same provision as for the oldest daughters. 

This was on her own account. Rebecca was the youngest daughter of 
Eobert, Jr., and then about nineteen years of age. She had lived with 
her grand-parents and administered to their comfort and society. It 
was a token of his gratitude, not a reward for services. He had re- 



APPENDIX 251 

warded everybody, and had already given a full share of his estate to 
her father. But it was the yearning of the old man's heart to have 
Eebecea understand that her filial attentions and her youthful society 
had been remembered In the exuberance of her young life, she had 
not forgotten the loneliness of age, and had contributed as none but a 
daughter or a grand-daughter can do, to make honored, but solitary, old 
age cheerful and happy. 

He and Sarah had endured the hardships of frontier life and acquired 
an estate, respectable for the times. It is manifest that Sarah cannot 
be left out in our estimate of this family. If it has had any success, 
or made any impression on the world, Sarah is entitled to a full share 
of the credit. There are indications that she had a better education 
than her husband. Nor is it to be forgotten that Kobert and Sarah 
endowed their children with sound and vigorous constitutions. They 
gave the race a good start, and Sarah was a full partner in the concern. 
She survived her husband. She buried him. In the great struggle 
among families for possessions, and for ascendancy, a race with a 
strong physical constitution is formidable. 

From all the evidence we have, the following may be taken as a state- 
ment of the dates of births, marriages and deaths of the five sons, 
sufficiently accurate for practical purposes: 

Born Married Died Aged 

Thomas 1671 1692 1755 84 

Eobert, Jr 1674 1694 1748 Apr. 29 74 

Daniel 1677 1704 1761 Aug. 24 84 

Joseph 1680 1708 1747 Jun. 18 67 

Benjamin 1684 1707 1766 82 

Each of these five sons had large families and many descendants, 
sufficient for a distinct and luxuriant family tree. The further dis- 
cussion, therefore, of the descendants of the first Eobert and Sarah Taft 
divides itself into five heads. The families of these five sons were as 
follows, viz. : 

I. Thomas Taft had eleven children: 

1. Joseph, born May 26, 1693. 

2. Sarah, born March 29, 1695. 

3. Eleaxer, born April 17, 1697. 

4. Hannah, born April 17, 1699. 

5. Eebecea, born March 15, 1701. 

6. Deborah, born Nov. 14, 1702. 

7. Eachael, born Oct. 1, 1704. 

8. Martha, bom June 15, 1708. 

9. Isaac, born July 15, 1710. 

10. Susannah, born March 15, 1713. 

11. Thomas, born March 15, 1713. 



252 ALPHONSO TAFT 

II. Eobert, Junior, had eleven children : 

1. Elizabeth, born January 18, 1695-6. 

2. Robert, born December 24, 1697. 

3. Israel, born April 26, 1699. 

4. Mary, born December 21, 1700. 

5. Elizabeth, born June 18, 1704. 

6. Alice, born June 27, 1707. 

7. Eunice, born February 20, 1708-9. 

8. John, born December 18, 1710. 

9. Jemima, born April 1, 1713. 

10. Gideon, born October 4, 1715. 

11. Rebecca, born March 15, 1701. 

III. Daniel Taf t had eight children : 

1. Daniel, born August 4, 1704. 

2. Abigal, born September 24, 1707. 

3. Josiah, born April 2, 1709. 

4. Lydia, born April 13, 1713. 

5. Daniel, born April 29, 1715. 

6. Ephraim, born May 25, 1718. 

7. Japhet, born March 3, 1721-2. 

8. Caleb, born , 1724. 

IV. Joseph, the fourth sou, had nine children: 

1. Lucy, born September 22, 1709, 

2. Moses, bom January 30, 1713. 

3. Peter, born 1715. 

4. Sarah, born March 2, 1719. 

5. Joseph, bom April 19, 1722. 

6. Elizabeth, born October 30, 1724. 

7. Aaron, born April 12, 1727. 

8. Margaret, born February 9, 1729. 

9. Ebenezer, born August 8, 1732. 

V. Benjamin, the fifth son, had six children: 

1. Samuel, born July 11, 1708. 

2. Stephen, born April 16, 1710. 

3. Mijamin, born April 25, 1712. 

4. Tabareh, born June 11, 1714. 

5. Silas. 

6. Paul. 

There is no doubt as to where Robert and Sarah resided. But there 
is a conflict of opinions on the question where the sons resided. I have 
at length relieved my mind of the perplexity arising from the different 
localities with which they have been respectively identified, by the hypoth- 
esis that, being large farmers, they not only had "house lots" where 



APPENDIX 253 

their dwellings were, but that they carried on large farms away from 
the house lots. We may remember that the plan of the settlement of 
Mendon was, that each proprietor should have a "house lot" on Avhich 
to place his dwelling, and a "great lot" wherever he might choose it. 
It is certain that when Thomas and Robert, Jr., and Daniel were re- 
spectively married, the father gave each of them a part of the ' ' Fort- 
field," and each of them built and occupied a house on his part of the 
original "house lot." Thomas had the south part, Daniel was next; 
Robert, Jr., had his house lot next to his father. His lot was forty- 
eight rods in front upon the road. In a deed to Robert, Jr., dated 1713, 
of a small piece of land on the opposite of the road, his father describes 
it as being "right over against the mansion house of the said Robert 
Taft, Jr." And in a deed to Daniel in 1706, of his part of the house 
lot, he says of it: "Lying above that part of the house lot, whereon 
our beloved son Robert is settled by our appointment," and in the same 
deed, he denominates the other divisions of lands as his "out lands." 
My conclusion from all the records' evidence is that the three older 
brothers all had their residences on the "house lot," or "Fortfield," 
while their father lived. But as farming was their business, and they 
had the boys do it, Thomas carried on a large farm at ' ' Little-pond, ' ' 
which was a mile or two south of his "mansion." Robert carried on the 
farm generally known as the Mowry farm, which is on the northwest of 
the large pond, but bordering upon it; and Daniel owned and carried 
on the farm now owned and occupied by Mr. Samuel H. Taft, bordering 
on the southwest part of the pond and including the outlet which drains 
the surplus from the pond, called Meadow Brook, on which he erected 
and ran a grist-mill. These were large farms, the clearing, improving 
and cultivation of which occupied most of their active lives, and kept 
their boys vigorously employed. Thomas and Robert had each four sons, 
and Daniel had five, all enterprising farmers. They undoubtedly erected 
houses and barns on these large farms, and during a portion of the 
year may have resided there. 

But their homes were with their families in their "mansions" on the 
"house lot." This was the state of things till the father's death. 
Robert, Jr., conveyed his homestead near the pond to Captain Robert, 
his son, by deed dated 1726, the next year after his father's death, and 
removed to Uxbridge where he resided, on the east side of the Blackstone, 
near the Uxbridge woolen mills, having lands on both sides of the river. 
Thomas and Daniel appeared to have continued to reside in their 
' ' mansion houses ' ' on the ' ' house lot. " It is probable that in that 
early day, when apprehension of danger from the Indians and from the 
wild beasts of the forests haunted the minds of the settlers, and when 
the town could afford but one school, considerations of mutual protec- 
tion and convenience as well as of society, influenced the older sons to 
locate their homesteads in the immediate neighborhood of their father, 
E-il Daniel, not long after the death of Lydia, his wife, which hap- 



254 ALPHONSO TAFT 

pened in 1758, moved to the house of his son Daniel, with whom he made 
his home, on what is known as the "Southwick" farm, in Mendon, 
where he died soon after (1761). Joseph and Benjamin, the two 
youngest sons, undoubtedly settled on the west side of the Blackstone 
not far from the meeting house, Joseph owning and residing upon the 
farm now owned and occupied by his great grandson, Zadock A. Taft, 
Esq.; and Benjamin settled on the farm now owned and occupied by 
Mrs. Bazaleel Taft. Here were their "mansion houses," while they, 
too, owned and improved "out lands" in the southwest part of the 
town. 

I. THOMAS 
Thomas, the oldest son, married Deborah Genery of Dedham, as we 
learn from a deed of a tract of land situated in Dedham, dated 1724, 
in which he describes it as "a part of the estate that fell to my wife 
from our honored father Isaac Genery, lately deceased, of Dedham." 
Thomas was a farmer, with eleven children. Like his father, he waa 
elected to places of trust in the town affairs, and shared the confidence 
of the local public. 

These local honors, conferred among persons intimately acquainted 
with each other, as are the inhabitants of such a town, have not the 
charm of political honors gained from the State, or from larger divisions 
of the country; but they are a better test of the estimate in which a 
man is held by those who know him best. Thomas came forward so 
early that many have supposed he was the father of his brothers, or at 
least that he was the brother of his father. 

But he was only his father's oldest son, perhaps two or three years 
older than his brother, Robert, Jr. Thomas had that part of the original 
"house lot" of his father on which are still remaining the rocks that, 
according to tradition, were once part of a defense, giving to the whole 
tract the name of the "Fortfield. " He died in 1755, at about the age 
of eighty-five. Tradition says that he was remembered as a venerable 
old man, tall and hoary headed, with a face of benignant expression. 

Thomas and Deborah followed the example of Robert and Sarah in 
early settling lands upon their children. They gave their childi'en better 
opportunities for education than had been practicable when they them- 
selves were young. The result was developed in the next generation. 

Captain Eleazer, his second son, who had been captain in the French 
and Indian war, had a pair of twin boys, and named them Moses and 
Aaron. Moses, he sent to Harvard University. Moses was probably 
the second student ever sent to college from Mendon. A son of Grindal 
Eawson, the minister, was sent a few years before. On the 25th day of 
May, 1750, while Moses was a senior, the town of Mendon voted "to 
choose the Rev. Joseph Dorr's son Joseph, and Captain Eleazer Taft's 
son Moses, to keep school by spells, as they could agree with them," 

Moses taught the school "by spells," but was not hindered from 
graduating at Harvard in 1751, and immediately commenced his studies 



APPENDIX 255 

for the ministry with the Rev. Joseph Dorr of Mendon, the minister. 
He studied to some purpose, for he pleased the Rev. Mr. Dorr and the 
Rev. Mr. Dorr's daughter, Miss Mary. Miss Mary's mother was the 
daughter of Rev. Grindal Rawson, and granddaughter of Rev. John Wil- 
son, names of some distinction. This alliance united the blood of the 
Wilsons, the Rawsons, the Dorrs, and the Tafts. Moses was settled over 
the church in East Randolph, Massachusetts, where he preached thirty- 
nine years till he died, November 12, 1791, a pious and an able minister, 
whose usefulness lived long after his death. 

He had four sons and five daughters. The love of learning which 
had taken root in the parents and grandparents, budded and blossomed 
in the children. All the four sons graduated in Harvard College, and 
for aught we know, the daughters would have taken the same course if 
Harvard had been open to them. 

Moses, the oldest son, who graduated in 1774, studied medicine and 
settled as a physician in Sudbury, Mass. 

Eleazer, who served and was a Lieutenant in the Revolutionary Army, 
nevertheless graduated in the class of 1783 at the age of 28, studied 
theology, spent his life usefully in the ministry, and died at Exeter, 
N. H., in 1834, leaving a large and respectable family. 

Joseph, who also graduated with his older brother Eleazer, in the class 
of 1783, settled as a physician in Weston, Mass. 

Phineas, the youngest, who graduated in 1789, and studied for the 
ministry, was a young man of fine promise, and was called to settle in 
Ashby, Mass., but died before his ordination. 

The names of the daughters are so soon disguised under those of their 
husbands that the genealogists find it difficult, if not impossible, to trace 
them. Though the sons are carefully placed upon the right branch of 
the tree, the daughters may be altogether missing. But I determined 
that these five daughters of Moses should not be forgotten. Upon care- 
ful inquiry, I find that they all married well, became intelligent wives 
and mothers, and left large and respectable families, and that they can 
no better be spared from the race than their "graduated" brothers. 
Time does not permit me to follow their destinies into the five different 
families with which they became connected. But they have been repre- 
sented in all the professions and in the Legislature of Massachusetts, as 
well as in all honorable trades and callings. 

It is pleasant to find among the descendants of Thomas Taft so good 
and valuable a man as the late Rev. George Taft, D. D., of Pawtucket, 
whose ministry was honorable, long continued, and useful. He was a 
graduate of Brown University, in the class of 1815. His death occurred 
within the last four or five years. Doctor John G, Metcalf, of Mendon, 
who knew him well, says of him in a recent correspondence : ' ' The 
Rev. Doctor George Taft was one of the best men I ever knew." 

Like the Rev. Moses Taft, he spent his life, a long one, in one church. 
His parishioners sought no change. No higher commendation could be 



256 ALPHONSO TAFT 

asked or given of the talents or character of these men. In taking an 
account of our jewels, these cannot be omitted. 

We learn from the interesting address of the Rev. Carlton A. Staples, 
"upon the history of the church of Mendon, " that it is recorded that 
in 1772, "Thomas Taft was suspended from communion in special or- 
dinances, for repeatedly refusing to hear, and casting contempt upon 
the church, particularly upon the pastor of said church, till he should 
make manifest repentance and reformation." This was not the first 
Thomas; he was dead. It could have been none other than the fourth 
son of the first Thomas, who was born March 15, 1713, and was at that 
time of the obstinate age of fifty-nine, when he refused to hear the Rev. 
Mr. Willard, and was suspended from ' ' communion in special ordi- 
nances. ' ' The same pastor had trouble with other members and was 
himself charged ' * with false recording and lying, ' ' on which he was 
tried and finally acquitted, but soon after dismissed. 

Who was right, and who was wrong, is not now of the slightest im- 
portance, and was probably of no importance then. The minister had 
to be sustained. It brought out, however, the characteristic of the race, 
not to submit tamely to arbitrary rule, even in the church. 

The Hon. Judge Chapin, whom we are proud to count among the 
Tafts, has the felicity of also being a Chapin, and has the honor of 
having given an admirable address on the occasion of a grand gathering 
of that family at Springfield. I observe that in treating the history of 
that family, he made a point of the great number of deacons that had 
sprung from Deacon Samuel Chapin, their first American progenitor. 
It was a strong point, and I fear we cannot compete successfully in that 
department. Our ancestor was a carpenter. We can boast of many 
good carpenters and many ingenious mechanics, of many manufacturers 
whose fabrics contribute largely to the wealth and independence of the 
country, and of a great many good farmers whose farms are their own; 
and it is not without pride that I am able to declare that the farm of 
the first Robert Taft is now owned and cultivated by a descendant, and 
what is still more remarkable, that the farm has not been out of the 
family since it came into it, 1679. 

Our family have not embarked much on National politics, except that 
they shared in the battles of the country, when National Independence 
was to be won, and also when the Union was at stake. But brilliant 
political careers have not been characteristic of the Tafts in the past. 
(Here the speaker, observing Governor Taft in the audience, paused 
and said, ' ' I beg pardon of my friend, Governor Taft, of Vermont, who 
is a descendant of Thomas, for making this remark. But exceptions 
only prove a general rale.") It is not safe to say what yet may be in 
store for them. ' ' There is a tide in the affairs of men, ' ' and so of 
families. 

We find good ministers, physicians, lawyers, engineers, scholars, mer- 
chants, bankers, men who know how to get rich and men who dare to be 



APPENDIX 257 

poor; and if I should yield to the Chapins in the number of deacons, 
I could not venture to yield anything even to them on the score of busi- 
ness enterprise, industry, intelligence, integrity and good morals. 

The immense families we find among their descendants bespeak their 
good habits. I called the other day upon a venerable lady who had 
borne fifteen children, and lived to see fourteen of them marry and 
settle in life; and her husband was the late Arnold Taft, a worthy 
descendant of the first Thomas. 

Whether the descendants of Thomas, or those of Robert, Jr., are more 
numerous, it is impossible to say with any certainty. To enumerate 
them would be like attempting to enumerate the children of Israel, and 
would require a visit to every State in the Union, and to Canada, and 
probably to other countries. 

II. ROBERT, JUNIOR 

In about two, or at most three, years after Thomas was settled and 
paid taxes, Robert, Junior, was also settled and came upon the tax list. 
After the separate organization of Uxbridge, Robert, Junior, and both 
the Josephs and Benjamin, disappear from the subsequent records of 
Mendon, and appear upon those of Uxbridge. 

At the first March meeting of Uxbridge (1727), Robert Taft, no 
longer junior, his father being dead, was chosen first selectman. He 
continued to figure in the town affairs, having undoubted weight and 
influence for a few years, when he gave up that kind of ambition to his 
son. Captain John, and retired to that otium cum dijnitate, which be- 
comes old age. He died April 29, 1748. 

His oldest son, who remained in Mendon, had large transactions in 
real estate, and was a man of spirit and enterprise. He was popular, 
and held every oflSce of trust and honor the town had to give, from 
fence viewer and tything-man, to selectman and representative in "the 
Great and General Court." He came upon the stage after Captain 
Josiah Chapin had passed off, and after his uncle Daniel had become 
absorbed in the important duties which, at that time, weighed down a 
colonial justice of the peace. Captain Robert was elected representative 
many times. From 1740, he was chosen not less than five or six times 
in succession. He lived and died in Mendon. He and his cousin, Cap- 
tain Eleazer Taft, were contemporaries, and each had a lively turn of 
mind, which, after Uxbridge was cut off, seemed to be needed to keep 
the old town awake; and if they ever went a little too fast, their uncle 
Daniel was always ready to check as well as to sustain them. Meantime, 
Captain John, who was also animating and popular, competed with his 
cousin Josiah, in Uxbridge, for the public favor, and both received a 
large share of it. The descendants of Robert, Junior, are very strong 
in this region, and are numerous elsewhere. They have laid hold of 
every kind of business and made it thrive. They are generally men and 
women of robust constitutions and good intellects. They have had some 



258 ALPHONSO TAFT 

enormous families. The competition in that particular between the tribe 
of Thomas and that of Eobert has been fearful. Thomas and Eobert, 
Jr., led off with eleven each. 

Israel Taft of Upton, a son of Eobert, Jr., had nineteen children, and 
Samuel, one of his sons, had twenty-two, of whom fourteen grew up 
and were married. And I am informed by Governor Taft, of Vermont, 
that Gideon Taft of that State, another and a late descendant of Eobert, 
Jr., was the father of thirty children, of whom twenty still survive. But 
I have not the statistics of the family. Samuel owned and carried on 
a farm and a tavern in Uxbridge on the old turnpike road from Boston 
to Hartford. It was at his house that Washington, on his way frona 
Boston to New York, soon after his election to the Presidency, stopped 
and was entertained, and so much was he pleased with the family that 
he wrote Mr. Taft the following letter: 

"Hartford, Nov. 8, 1789. 
' * Sir. — Being informed that you have given my name to one of your 
eone, and called another after Mrs. Washington's family" (Dandridge), 
"and being moreover vei-y much pleased with the modest and innocent 
looks of your two daughters, Patty and Polly, I do for these reasons 
send each of these girls a piece of chintz; and to Patty, who bears the 
name of Mrs. Washington, and who waited more upon us than Polly did, 
I send five guineas, with which she may buy herself any little ornament 
she may want, or she may dispose of them in any other manner more 
agreeable to herself. As I do not give these things with a view to have 
it talked of, or even to its being known, the less there is said about the 
matter the better you will please me; but, I may be sure the chintz and 
money have got safe to hand, let Patty, who I dare say is equal to it, 
write me a line informing me thereof, directed ' to the President of the 
United States, at New York.' I wish you and your family well, and 

am your humble servant." 

"George Washington." 

Not many girls could boast of such a message as that from the first 
President of the United States. Though he was President, Washington, 
who was childless, admired, if he did not envy, Samuel Taft with his 
numerous family of vigorous and handsome children. It was not many 
years before both Patty and Polly were married and had their children 
around them. The son who bore the name of the President settled in 
Gincinnati, where he repeated the compliment by calling one of his sons 
George Washington; and where another son, bearing the name of his 
grandfather, Samuel, still resides and prospers. The old homestead of 
Samuel Taft in Uxbridge, where Washington was entertained and 
lodged, with "the brave old oak" standing as a witness in the front 
yard, remains to the present day in the family, sacredly preserved to 
commemorate that father of many children, as well as "the father of 
his country." I have referred to and quoted from a letter of the late 



APPENDIX 259 

Esquire Frederick Taft, of Uxbridge, a man of great worth and force 
of character. He served three years in the army of the Eevolution. 
He was a son of Samuel, and one of the twenty-two. 

Lyman Taft, of Montague, also one of that family, was a man of 
fine physical structure, with a good head and a comprehensive mind. 
He built a dam across the Connecticut river and other public works. 
He bought lands extensively in the State of Vermont and made money. 
He sent two sons to college. The oldest, Horace, graduated at Dart- 
mouth in 1806; John Adams, the other, graduated in 1825, at Yale, — 
a man of fine promise, but died early. Horace was a respectable lawyer 
and settled in Sunderland, Massachusetts, and though now dead, has 
left a good representative in his son, Henry W. Taft, Esq., of Pittsfield. 
The late Orray Taft, of Providence, whose business operations were 
extensive and whose character commanded universal respect, and the 
late Archibald Taft, of Berkshire County, whose name and character 
were an ornament and a treasure in the community where he lived and 
died, both descended from the second Eobert. The venerable Orsmus 
Taft, whose old age is made happy by the prosperity of his sons in the 
business to which he devoted his early energies, Moses, Robert, Jacob, 
and many others who are still living, and who have been honorably and 
usefully and successfully connected with the great manufacturing in- 
terests of this vicinity, are descendants of the second Eobert. Enos N. 
Taft, Esq., who represents us at the New York bar; the Hon. Henry 
Chapin, who represents us at the bar and on the bench of Worcester 
County, and Hon. Velorous Taft, who for many years has held the 
responsible position of commissioner of Worcester County, are descend- 
ants of the second Eobert. The Eev. Carlton A. Staples, of Providence, 
and the Eev. Lovett Taft, of Ohio, are also descendants of the second 
Eobert. 

The descendants of the second Eobert, like those of all the other 
brothers, have done their share at cultivating the earth. Agriculture, 
which is the destiny of nine-tenths of the human race in civilized coun- 
tries, was not neglected by Eobert, the carpenter, nor Eobert, Jr., nor 
yet by Captain Eobert, and it has been characteristic of the family not 
to be above their business. Farming has ever been held in honor by 
them. But when the West ran away with the profits of farming, they 
used their wits, invented and improved machinery, turned out abundant 
fabrics of cotton, woolen, wood and iron, and made more money than if 
the West had not attempted to monopolize the honorable profession of 
farming. In all this the descendants have borne a leading part. In 
this connection, as I pass over the mass of enterprising and worthy 
business men who have sprung from the second Eobert, — bankers, mer- 
chants, mechanics, manufacturers, in all of which departments they 
were strong, — I regret that it is out of my power to do justice to the 
individuals who make up that mass. When we consider the extent to 
which the name has become associated with the manufacturers of this 



260 ALPHONSO TAFT 

vicinity, and how much more widely the blood has extended than the 
name, we may conclude that the great factories of this section of the 
Blaekstone Valley are almost a family concern. 

As the descendants of Benjamin, many years ago, founded and gave 
their name to a town in Vermont, so the descendants of the second 
Robert have more recently established a manufacturing town in Con- 
necticut which is kno^Ti as Taftville, and has prospered by the enter- 
prise of the founders. 

III. DANIEL 

Four years after Eobert, came Daniel upon the tax list, and assumed 
the responsibilities of a man. His first marriage was probably in the 
year 1702 or 3. His first wife's christian name was Hannah. Her 
surname we have not found. She died on the 8th of August, 1704, 
leaving an infant son, Daniel, who soon died also. On the 5th of 
December, 1706, he was married to Lydia Chapin, daughter of Captain 
Josiah Chapin. Of Daniel's second marriage we have a record; and 
his tombstone stands in the old cemetery in Mendon, informing us that 
he died on the 24th of August, 1761, aged 84 years. This record fixes 
his birth in or about the year 1677, a date earlier than his removal to 
Mendon, and one year before that deed was drawn in Braintree, which 
bounded the premises by the property occupied by Robert Taft. If 
Robert Taft had owned that house and lot more than one year at a time, 
then Daniel was bom at Braintree. More than any other man, he suc- 
ceeded to the solid position of Captain Josiah Chapin, after his decease, 
and shared it while he lived. The strength of his position among the 
people is manifest from the number and variety of trusts placed upon 
him by the public. He was the legal adviser of his father and his 
brothers, and also his neighbors. Wlien anything critical was pending, 
the town seemed to feel relief on entrusting it to him. If bills of credit 
were issued by the Colonial government to be loaned to the towns, Daniel 
was inevitably the trustee for its distribution in loans to the people. 
He was often, and for many years in succession, Treasurer of the town. 
He became familiar with parliamentary rules, and was for many years 
chosen moderator of town meetings. The men of Mendon were critical 
and rather precise in their mode of doing public business, and Daniel's 
authority did not always pass unchallenged. They were especially pre- 
cise in limiting the proceedings of each town meeting to the objects 
specially enumerated in the call as published. 

In February, 1722, a town meeting had been warned and held, and 
Daniel was chosen moderator. Who the town clerk was does not appear, 
but he made the record read as follows : ' ' After the business thereof 
was finished that was inserted in the warrant, the aforesaid moderator, 
Daniel Taft, assumed unto himself the power to appoint and warn a 
township meeting, which is contrary to the law, nothing being inserte<l 
in the warrant for calling a meeting for that purpose, and took a vote 



APPENDIX 261 

thereon by the hoWing up of hands." And the town afterwards re- 
solved that what was done at the meeting so called was of ' ' none effect. ' ' 

Daniel was not satisfied to lie under such an imputation. The Tafts 
rallied at the next March meeting. Daniel was made moderator, select- 
man and trustee, and both the Josephs were chosen to office, and at a 
subsequent meeting of the town, it was voted that the entry by the clerk 
of the former meeting was false and defamatory, and that it be ex- 
punged. I do not find that Daniel's rulings were ever questioned again. 
In 1730, Daniel was delegated to negotiate for the creation of the new 
county of Worcester. Up to that time, Mendon and Uxbridge had been 
in the county of Suffolk. The next year, 1731, the county of Worcester 
was created. In 1732, by a deed, the consideration of which was "the 
love and affection which I bear the town of Uxbridge," he gave to the 
town the site of the old burying ground, minutely describing it. He was 
chosen representative of Mendon to the General Court in 1728. How 
many times he was sent to the General Court 1 am unable to say. He 
was a Justice of the Peace under the Colonial government for many 
years. His appointment having been made before the death of Josiah 
Chapin and continuing, I think, to the end of his long life. A Justice 
of the Peace in England and under the Colonial government is, and 
always has been, an important office. The appointment imports a man 
of dignity and weight of character, and usually a man of an estate. 
To Josiah, his oldest son, he conveyed by deed of gift the farm on the 
west side of the Blackstone, afterwards held by Esquire Bazaleel, 
Josiah 's son, and more recently by Mrs. Joseph Thayer, and which is 
still owned by the family. This fine farm was given by Daniel to Josiah 
in 1732. This is another instance of the fidelity with which these 
ancient farms have been kept and cherished in the family. Daniel's 
descendants had considerable political prominence. Captain Josiah, his 
son, resided in Uxbridge, and was honored and trusted as his father had 
been and was, in Mendon. His son Caleb he sent to Harvard University, 
where he died, and the father, when called to his son's deathbed, was 
himself attacked by the disease and died on his way home, at the age of 
forty-seven, leaving unfinished a promising career. 

In giving an account of the descendants of Daniel Taft, the names 
of Bazaleel, senior and junior, and of George Spring Taft, the son of 
the younger Bazaleel, cannot be omitted. I avail myself of a notice 
published in the Worcester Palladium, on the occasion of the death of 
the grandson, George S. Taft, "Hon. Bazaleel Taft, senior, was born 
in 1750, and died 1839, in the 89th year of his age. For many years he 
had been one of the leading men in the south part of Worcester County, 
and the tokens of the confidence of his fellow-citizens, while they im- 
posed upon him the burdens of life, strengthened him for their faithful 
fulfillment. He was two years a member of the State Senate, two years 
a member of the executive council, and some years a member of the 
house of representatives from Uxbridge. He was a strong and decided 



262 ALPHONSO TAFT 

Federalist, and never swerved from his political faith. Firm, compact, 
honest, dignified and able, he went through life fulfilling his various 
duties with rare fidelity and conscientiousness, and leaving to his family 
and to all who knew him a character which is always referred to with 
reverent pride and pleasure. He became a large land holder in his 
native town, and the old homestead is yet in the hands of his descend- 
ants. The stately elms which shelter the home of the patriarch, built of 
timber hewn by his own hands, and firm as the hills around, are em- 
blematic of the man whose memory is embalmed in the hearts of his 
friends and kindred." Nor can I pass from the notice of Bazaleel, 
senior, without a reference to his Revolutionary history, which I have 
received from my friend, the Hon. Henry Chapin, as given in an address 
delivered by him some ten or eleven years since to the citizens of Ux- 
bridge. 

"In the Revolutionary War, Bazaleel Taft, senior, went with a com- 
pany collected in his neighborhood to Rhode Island in the capacity of 
orderly sergeant. Having made his first report, he happened to be 
within hearing when the commanding otficer read his report, and as he 
finished it, he exclamed, ' Who wrote that report?' Mr. Taft, supposing 
that possibly he had been guilty of some breach of military rules, and 
that he might be arrested, slipped out to attend to some matters, but he 
had not been absent long before he was summoned by an inferior officer 
to come before the commander. Said the commander, ' Is your name 
Bazaleel Taft?' ' It is, sir.' ' Did you make that report?' ' I did 
make it. I was not very familiar with military matters, but I did it 
as weU as I could. ' Instead of a reprimand, he was electrified by the 
announcement, ' Mr. Taft, I wish to have you act in the capacity of 
Adjutant of these troops. You may enter at once upon the duties, and 
shall have a horse as soon as one can be furnished by the government. ' ' ' 

Bazaleel Taft, senior, was grandson of the first Daniel Taft, and must 
have been eleven years of age in 1761, when his grandfather died. His 
first wife was Abigal Taft, by whom he had one child, a daughter, whose 
name was Eunice. Eunice became the wife of Dea. Phineas Chapin, 
and the mother of Mrs. Paul Whitin, of Whitinsville, a lady who is 
remembered with veneration and affection by all her descendants. His 
second wife was Sarah Richardson. 

His only son who lived to majority was Bazaleel Taft, junior. Of 
him, too, I am able to give a brief account, taken from the same article 
in the Worcester Palladiwn. "Hon. Bazaleel Taft, Jr., was born in 
1780, and died in 1846, in the 66th year of his age. He was a gentle- 
man of polished manners, excellent culture and high standing in his 
profession. He graduated at Cambridge in the year 1804, and after 
being admitted to the bar, established himself as a lawyer in his native 
town. He always resided in Uxbridge and enjoyed largely the confi- 
dence of his fellow-citizens. He was twice elected a member of the 
State Senate, twice a member of the executive council, and for a number 



APPENDIX 263 

of years a representative to the Massachusetts Legislature. He was 
very active in the establishment of the State Lunatic Hospital at 
Worcester, and always referred with much pleasure to the part which 
he had taken in its origin and success, He was the second president of 
Blackstone Bank, and held the office at the time of his death. He was 
a man of genial humor, rare hospitality, enlightened public spirit, and 
unbended integrity. His name and character are held in grateful re- 
membrance by those who knew him best, and his children and his chil- 
dren 's children still cherish them as a priceless legacy." 

George Spring Taft, the third of this line, was a graduate of Brown 
University, a gentleman and a man of scholarly attainments. He suc- 
ceeded to his father's profession of the law. His career, which was 
promising, was cut short at the age of 33 by death. 

Chloe, the youngest daughter of the elder Bazaleel, became the wife 
of Joseph Thayer, Esq., now deceased a well-known lawyer of Uxbridge, 
and was the mother both of the former, and of the present wife of 
Judge Henry Chapin, who has thus a double interest in the Taft family 
by blood and by marriage. 

Hopestill Taft, daughter of the second Daniel, was married in 1766 
to David Bullard, and her descendants are numerous and not undistin- 
guished, residing in central New York. General Edward F. Bullard, 
formerly of Troy, but now of Saratoga, New York, and a prominent 
member of the New York bar is one of her descendants. 

IV.— JOSEPH 

Just four years after Daniel began to pay the minister's tax, Joseph's 
name appears, in 1703. He is the first of the five brothers who bore a 
military title. He was sometimes called Joseph, senior, sometimes lieu- 
tenant or captain, to distinguish him from his nephew, Joseph Taft, the 
oldest son of the first Thomas, born in 1693, and thirteen younger than 
his uncle Joseph, who heads the fourth division of the race. Joseph, 
then, was born in 1680, married in 1708, and died July 18, 1747, in the 
68th year of his age. The name of his wife was Elizabeth Emerson, 
the granddaughter of the first minister of Mendon, and they had nine 
children. 

His farm was on both sides of the Blackstone, though his residence 
and most of his "outlands" were west of the river. It was through 
the lands of Joseph, Robert and Benjamin that the town of Mendon in 
1711, by vote, ordered the selectmen "to lay out a four rod highway 
from the highway that leads to John Cooke's farm unto 'the bridge the 
Taf ts built, ' over the Great River, and from said bridge unto the town 'a 
common on the west of said river. ' ' This road as laid by the committee 
commenced upon the east side of West River, crossing both rivers, but 
crossing the Blackstone on " the bridge the Tafts built," just below 
the mouth of the Mumford. 



264 ALPHONSO TAFT 

Joseph bore his part in the general management of town affairs, both 
in Mendon and in Uxbridge. He seems to have been a man of an inde- 
pendent turn of mind. An illustration of that characteristic appears 
from the proceedings of the town of Mendon of May 17, 1721, before 
Uxbridge was cut off. The government had concluded to try the experi- 
ment of emitting bills of credit, to be loaned out among the people by 
the towns, the towns, of course, being responsible to the provincial gov- 
ernment for the money to redeem them. The people were generally 
pleased with the idea, and on the 17th of May, 1721, the town "voted 
to receive our town's part of £50,000 of bills of credit to be emitted 
by act of the General Court, and dispensed through the province." But 
Joseph resisted the project and entered a protest, signed by Joseph Taft, 
senior, Benjamin Taft, and Joseph Taft, junior. The plan, however, 
went into operation. But such was the general result as applied in the 
provinces that seventy years afterward, when American independence 
had been achieved, and a convention was called to form a constitution, 
they put into the first article of that constitution the prohibition, ' ' No 
State shall emit bills of credit." 

At the next town meeting of Mendon, it was voted that "to secure 
the town from loss by letting out the town's share of the bills of credit, 
a committee be appointed to add instructions." Joseph Taft was 
chosen chairman of that committee. He reported promptly the restric- 
tions he deemed necessary, and whether the town escaped without loss, I 
have not learned. 

As I have stated already, when Uxbridge was taken from Mendon, the 
Tafts were divided, leaving Thomas, Daniel, Capt. Robert, Capt. Eleazer 
and others in Mendon, and carrying away Robert, junior, Capt. Joseph, 
Benjamin, Capt. Josiah, Capt. John and others who came rapidly upon 
the stage. 

Notwithstanding this division, they seemed to be stronger in each 
town than they were before in Mendon. The first thing that awakened 
special attention, after the election of officers in Uxbridge, was the 
building of a church. It was voted ' ' to set the meeting-house on the 
south side of Drabbletail brook," but finding that this would not be 
convenient, that vote was recalled, and it was voted to set the meeting- 
house within the fence of Deacon Ebenezer Reed's pasture, which, I un- 
derstand, included the site of the church now occupied and owned by the 
Unitarian Society. 

Captain Joseph was on the committee to see about building the meet- 
ing-house. But it was by the vote of the people in town meeting as- 
sembled, and not by an order of the committee, that ' ' fifteen gallons of 
good rum were provided for the raising of the meeting-house," which 
was but half the quantity that had been required to raise the meeting- 
house in Mendon. I am satisfied that Captain Joseph was strictly sober 
and not inclined to the habitual use of rum or other intoxicating drinks. 
He was regarded as reliable in financial matters and in matters of 



APPENDIX 265 

account. He was put on the committee to receive and invest the quota 
of bills of credit in Uxbridge, as he had been in Mendon. He also was 
made chairman of a committee to call Solomon Wood, the treasurer, to 
an account. 

In 1732, the selectmen stood as follows: Cornet John Farnum, Lieut. 
Joseph Taft, Dea. Eb'r Read, Capt. Jos. White, Corpl. Joseph Taft, 
Robert Taft, surveyor of highways. It was generally about in that pro- 
portion, and the proportion grew greater rather than less as time passed 
on, for there came upon the stage, beside those I have mentioned, Stephen 
and Samuel and John and James and Josiah and Benjamin and Peter 
and Gideon and Mijamim and Moses and Aaron and Gershom and 
Ephrain and Caleb and Reuben and Abner and Nahum and Seth and 
Paul and Silas and Jacob and Noah, all of whom shared honorably in 
the government of this town of Uxbridge. These names recur so con- 
tinuously on the record as to become monotonous. 

The descendants of Joseph are widely scattered. They are outnum- 
bered in Uxbridge by the descendants of the second Robert. But the 
homestead of Captain Joseph, the monumental farm which he was the 
first to clear and improve, and where he spent his whole active life and 
■where he died, is held firmly by his great-grandson, Zadock A. Taft, 
Esq., to whom the descendants of Joseph from abroad owe many thanks 
for preserving it. 

The sons of Capt. Joseph were Moses, Peter, Joseph and Aaron. They 
each received from their father a good farm by deed of gift. They 
were industrious, prosperous farmers and good citizens. The Hon. 
George W. Taft, the representative of Uxbridge in the last legislature 
of IMassachusetts, is a descendant of Moses, and owns and occupies the 
farm Avhich Moses received from his father, the first Joseph, by deed of 
May 11, 1744. The descendants of Moses were prosperous, and many 
of them remained in Massachusetts. 

Peter also received from Joseph a farm lying about one mile west of 
that of Moses. Peter was a captain, and is described as a large, good- 
looking man with a magnanimous disposition. He married Elizabeth 
Cheney. They had four sons, Henry, Gershon, Aaron and Peter. 

Henry moved to Barre, Vt., where his descendants are numerous, 
Denison Taft, Esq., of Montpelier, is a worthy descendant of Henry. 
Also Richard Taft, of Franconia, New Hampshire, proprietor of the 
Profile House in that place, whose enterprise and ability have been 
crowned with distinguished success and wealth. 

Deacon Gershom resided in Uxbridge. He was a prosperous farmer 
and universally respected. Dr. Jonathan Taft, the distinguished pro- 
fessor of dental surgery, of Cincinnati, to whom we are also indebted 
for the publication of the Family Tree, is a descendant of Uncle Gershom. 

He was one of the deacons. But he was a non-resistant. His name 
is on the rolls of the colonial troops who served in the French and 
Indian war, and it is not to be doubted that he fought as well as he 



266 ALPHONSO TAFT 

prayed. After his death, his house was taken down and brought some 
two miles to the neighborhood of Uxbridge Centre, and put up again, 
where it now stands conspicuous, gable end to the street, large enough 
for a meeting house. He held fast to Uxbridge, but his descendants 
mostly emigrated to Vermont and elsewhere. One venerable descendant 
of Uncle Gershom still lives among the scenes of his childhood. I refer 
to Mr. Chandler Taft. 

Aaron Taft, the next younger brother of Gershom, fitted for and 
entered Princeton College of New Jersey. The exigencies of the family 
called him home before he had finished his college course, but not before 
he had established a good reputation as a scholar. He married Rhoda 
Eawson, of Uxbridge, in 1769, a descendant of Grindal Rawson. They 
had a family of eleven children, of whom nine grew up to maturity. 
After thirty years in Uxbridge, a large part of which time he was town 
clerk, having lost his property by indorsements for his friends, he moved 
with all his family to Vermont in 1799 and disappears forever from the 
home of his birth. He was a man of great intelligence and integrity. 
His affairs improved in the "New State," but a majority of his de- 
scendants have ' ' gone West, and grown up with the country. ' ' 

Peter E. Taft, his oldest son, died in 1867. I avail myself of a brief 
notice of his life and character, published in the Cincinnati Gazette on 
that occasion: 

Peter Rawson Taft was born on the 14th of April, 1785, in Uxbridge, 
Mass. At fourteen years of age he, with his father's family, removed 
to the then new State of Vermont, and settled in the town of Townshend, 
Windham County. There he labored on his father's farm the greater 
portion of the time, improving, however, the advantages of such schools 
and academies as were accessible. 

Though a farmer, he was studious and always fond of reading. As 
soon as of sufficient age, he was employed to teach the public school of 
Townshend in the winter season. This employment continued for several 
winters. He also made himself a skillful surveyor, and was extensively 
employed in that capacity. 

"At the age of twenty-five he married Sylvia Howard of the same 
place" (a descendant of Samuel Hay ward and Capt. Josiah Chapin, of 
Mendon), "who has also deceased within the last year. They lived 
together fifty-six years. They had but one child, Alphonso Taft, now 
one of the Judges of our Superior Court, with whom they have resided 
for the last twenty-five years." 

But the active life of the deceased was mainly spent in Vermont. 
Though not educated for the bar, his reading included the law. 

He was early appointed to the office of Justice of the Peace. With- 
out aspiring to high office, he was much in public life. He was chosen 
continually to the most important offices of the town; was also one of 
the commissioners of the county. By annual elections and re-elections, 



APPENDIX 267 

he was many times a representative in the Vermont Legislature. He 
was admitted to the bar, and his opinion in legal matters was valued. 

' ' Four years he was Judge of the Probate Court of Windham County 
by election of the Legislature, after which he was elected a judge of the 
County Court, and held that office four years to the universal acceptance 
of the people and the bar. He was regarded as a just, humane and wise 
man. 

"Books have been a great resource in his old age. His historical 
knowledge was extensive and accurate, and his familiarity with the Bible 
was remarkable. He has left to his friends and relatives who survive 
him and who knew him best a sweet and precious memory. He died on 
New Year 's day, aged eighty-two. ' ' 

But it is impossible to trace in this discourse the varied destinies of 
the descendants of Joseph, distributed as they are through many States. 
Joseph has been represented in the legislatures of Massachusetts, of 
Vermont, of Michigan, of Iowa, and of Ohio, while his home in Ux- 
bridge is still held by his name and blood. 

v.— BENJAMIN 

The youngest son of Eobert and Sarah was called Benjamin. Benja- 
min married Sarah Thomas March 22, 1707. Benjamin's descendants 
have probably left the original hive in a larger proportion than the 
descendants of either of the other brothers, unless there should be an 
exception in the ease of Joseph. Benjamin was undoubtedly born after 
Eobert and Sarah moved to Mendon. Though younger than Joseph, he 
was married a year or two earlier. He was a purchaser of lands; 
owned a large quantity in different parts of the town and in Douglas. 
But his largest possessions were in the southwestern part of Uxbridge 
in the vicinity of Shockalog pond and brook. He followed the policy 
of his father and brothers in settling on his children farms as soon as 
they were married and needed homes of their own, thus distributing a 
large part of his possessions before his death. But after his death, 
he had more than twelve hundred acres of land to go to his heirs. He, 
like his brothers, was elected to town offices. But he seems to have been 
one who was absorbed in his family and in home industry. We are not 
80 well advised as to the number of his descendants as we are as to the 
descendants of the older brothers. It is hoped that this gathering will 
bring out many who may not have been generally known to the family. 
So far as I have been able to learn, the character of the descendants 
of Benjamin have been of the sterling kind; not pretentious, nor am- 
bitious politically, but uniformly sober, industrious, upright, enterprising 
in business and generally thrifty. 

Stephen, a son of Seth, who was the son of Stephen, the second son 
of Benjamin, emigrated to Vermont about the year 1790, and was the 
first to build a dam across the Queechee River, in or near Woodstock, 
and established there a scythe factory. In 1792, his brother Daniel 



268 ALPHONSO TAFT 

came up, then a boy of sixteen, and began to learn the trade of scythe 
making. In 1804, Daniel then twenty-six years of age, and Seth, an- 
other brother, bought out Stephen and carried on the business till 1811, 
when the shop was destroyed by fire, and Seth lost his life by an injury 
received at the fire. Daniel rebuilt the shop and enlarged the business 
far beyond the conceptions of his brother Stephen who commenced it. 
It has been a very important manufactory of agricultural cutlery. The 
family has greatly increased. Daniel was a man of solid character, 
which commanded universal confidence. He was honored by his fellow- 
citizens with places of public trust, and was sent to the State Legisla- 
ture as the representative of Woodstock. The works established by the 
Tafts created a prosperous town which is known as Taftsville. It is a 
post of considerable importance. This was transplanting the same kind 
of enterprise to Vermont, to make available the water power of the 
Queechee River, which has since subjected the water power of the Black- 
stone, Mumford and West rivers to use in old Uxbridge. There was an 
originality and steady perseverance in these descendants of Benjamin 
which deserved the signal success they have won. They carried the 
name to Vermont and made it honorable, and they cannot be forgotten 
when the family meets in its ancient home to review its history. 

It is impossible to linger on all the meritorious characters which have 
been produced in the family of Benjamin. But I must be permitted to 
refer to the Hon. Levi B. Taft, of Michigan, who holds a high position 
on the bench of that State. Before his election to that position, he had 
been a lawyer of long and high standing. The exacting duties of his 
office prevent his sharing with us the pleasures of this occasion. Judge 
Levi B. Taft graduated at Dartmouth College in 1843, and after a short 
experience in teaching, commenced the study and in due time the prac- 
tice of law. His career has been successful and honorable. 

The number of college graduates descended from the first Eobert Taft 
is something more than forty. If I am not mistaken in my estimate of 
the character and condition of the race at the present time, there is an 
increasing tendency to intellectual pursuits. 

I ought, perhaps, to add that the family has furnished the General 
Court of Massachusetts many representatives. Among them were: 

Of Mendon — Daniel Taft, son of the first Robert; Capt. Robert Taft, 
son of the second Robert; and Thomas Taft, the fourth in the line of 
Thomases. How many others of the name or blood in Mendon have 
served the State as legislators I know not. 

Of Uxbridge — Bazaleel Taft, senior, and Bazaleel Taft, junior, de- 
scendants of the first Daniel; Moses Taft and Jacob Taft, descendants 
of the second Robert; Charles A. Taft, a descendant of the first Thomas; 
Chandler Taft, descendant of Joseph; and George W. Taft, descendant 
of both Robert and Joseph. 

Of North Bridgewater — Henry French, a descendant of Thomas. The 
family has also furnished representatives for the legislature of 



APPENDIX 269 

other States. But my knowledge of their names is limited. Among 
them have been: 

In Vermont — Peter Eawson Taft, a descendant of Joseph; Daniel 
Taft and Paschal Taft, descendants of Benjamin; and Russel S. Taft, 
a descendant of Thomas. 

In Michigan — George W. Lovell, Enos Taft Lovell, Fayette Lovell, 
descendants of Joseph. 

In Iowa — George W. Lovell, a descendant of Joseph. 

In Ohio — Charles Phelps Taft, of Cincinnati, a descendant of Joseph. 

I have thus, my friends, briefly sketched the history of our family and 
its five original branches. Of the living generation, I have not at- 
tempted to say much. Time would not permit. This one day out of 
two hundred years belongs mainly to our ancestors. They have been 
presented imperfectly, but so I hope as to be appreciated by the willing 
minds of their descendants. And where are these our progenitors today, 
when we are endeavoring to bring them back to memory? If spiritual 
existence is not a myth, and the immortal life for which we hope a 
dream, they are our most interested spectators. Having rested from 
their earthly labors, they can now look down upon each generation of 
their descendants with eyes undimmed by age or sorrow, and with affec- 
tion untouched by corporeal infirmities. Can any one of their descend- 
ants afford to ignore even the humblest of his ancestors on whom his 
very existence has depended and by whom his present condition has been 
in part shaped! Is it due respect to them to limit our inquiries to the 
first or the second generation, forgetting their predecessors who were as 
indispensable to our being as those we call by the endearing appellation 
of Father? In less than a century we shall all have finished our course 
on earth, and ourselves be observing the successive generations of our 
own descendants. Shall we be satisfied to be coldly remembered by the 
first or the second generations only? Or shall we not yearn to be re- 
membered, if not by the descendants of others, at least by those in 
whose veins our own blood continues to circulate? 

The address was listenedd to with deep interest throughout. At its 
close, the band gave another selection, which was followed by a song, 
written by Carleton A. Staples, of Providence, and sung to the tune of 
"Auld Lang Syne," as follows: 

Two hundred years have come and gone. 

Since on the Mendon hills 
A vine was planted by the Pond, 

"Whose fruit the land now fills. 
"We gather from our peaceful homes, 

A great and happy throng. 
To bless the spot whereon it grew. 

And lift our grateful song. 



270 ALPHONSO TAFT 

Our fathers here hewed down the woods 

And broke the virgin soil; 
Our mothers spun the flax and wool, 

And cheered them in their toil. 
The children here together played 

And learned their lessons well, 
While oft in pleasant paths they strayed, 

The tale of love to tell. 

Their homes were poor, their lot was hard; 

In toil and pain and tears, 
They lived and died to serve their God, 

And bless the coming years. 
Green be their graves among the hills. 

Sweet be their rest on high ; 
While by these rocks and fields and rills. 

Their names shall never die. 

We greet each other here today, 

As friends and brothers all; 
With earnest hearts these kinsmen say, 

' ' The Taf ts shall never fall. ' ' 
Old Robert's stock is strong and sound. 

And while the waters run, 
This vine shall spread its roots around, 

And bud and blossom on. 

And when at length these earthly scenes 

Have vanished from our eyes, 
When all that now are gathered here. 

Have passed beyond the skies, — 
In that bright home where lov'd ones wait. 

And many mansions be, 
Our Father, grant that we may dwell 

One happy family. 

The exercises in the church closed with the benediction by the Rev. 
Lovett Taft. 



APPENDIX 271 

Services in the Tent 

The family assembled around the tables in the tent at 
twenty minutes past two o'clock, and were called to order 
by the President, Daniel W. Taft, of Uxbridge. Blessing 
was invoked by Kev. T. C. Biscoe, of Uxbridge. 

Hon. Henry Chapin, of Worcester, having been invited 
by the Committee of Arrangements to write a poem for the 
occasion, was introduced by the President, as follows: 

In canny Scotland, liome of Robert Bums, 
To whose sweet songs the weary peasant turns 
To rest him for a while. 
Each warlike clan, to song and music wed, 
Its own old minstrel to the manor bred, 
Beguiles with harp and rhyme. 

In Yankee land, in our poetic times, 

Another minstrel sings his tuneful rhymes 

In measures sweet and saft; 

And here today, brimful of musal fire. 

Our minstrel, Cliapin, tunes the trembling lyre 

To praise the name of Taft. 

JUDGE CHAPIN'S POEM 

In early days, old people say, 

A stranger in this town 

^Mien going up the road one day, 

Met some one coming down. 

"Good morning, Mr. Taft! " said he; 

The fellow only laughed, 

And said, " Just how, explain to me. 

You know my name is Taft." 

The stranger said, " I've only met 

A dozen since I came, 

And all but one who've spoken yet, 

Have answered to the name; 

So judging from a fact like this, 

I candidly confess 

I thought I could not hit amiss. 

And ventured on a guess." 

We guess no more. This swelling tide 

Of kinsmen, old and young. 

Proclaims that we all hail with pride. 

The Taft from whom we sprung: 



272 ALPHONSO TAFT 

Albeit now, some other .clakn 

May elsewhere rule our will, 

This day, whatever be our name, 

We're his descendants still. 

Wliy gathers here this festive throng, 

So happy and so gay? 

Why press the surging croM^ds along 

On this warm summer day ? 

Why greet us now the grave and stern. 

These eyes which shine like pearls? 

Why welcome us, where'er we turn. 

These grown up boys and girls? 

The Puritans of former days 

Sailed o'er the stormy sea. 

To scatter on their busy ways 

The seeds which were to be 

The germs from which a race should spring. 

So manly, true and brave, 

Their names through all the world should ring. 

And rule on every wave. 

Avoiding much the lighter joys. 

While grappling with their sins. 

They loved a troop of boys and girls. 

And gloried in tlie tAvins; 

And whether they could read or write. 

Stout hearted men like these 

Were fvill of theologic fight, 

And revelled in decrees. 

On mountain tops of thought they trod. 

And heard the thunders roar 

Beneath them, while they talked with God, 

And worshipped him the more; 

They came into the wilderness, 

Where tempted day by day, 

They met the devil face to face, 

And drove the fiend away. 

They smote the Quakers hip and thigh, 

They bade the Baptists go; 

Episcopacy, low or high, 

They didn't care to know; 

They'd seen enough of other creeds, 

To make them prize their own; 

They felt it met their soul's best needs, 

To go it all alone. 

Yet, spite of all the narrowness, 



APPENDIX 273 

Which marked the early deeds, 

The loving elements which grace 

The men of different creeds, 

Have led the children to forget 

The battle fields of yore, 

And those who once as foeman met. 

Now meet as friends once more. 

Among a stern and gallant band, 

Our greatest grandsire came; 

Upon his record here we stand, 

We love to speak his name. 

From valley, hill an^ plain are we 

All gathered like a flood, 

Drawn by the fond affinity 

Wliich thrills a kindred blood. 

We fancy now the face and form 

The sturdy veteran bore; 

Alike in sunshine and in storm, 

The simple mien he wore; 

For ca^lmness sat upon his brow, 

His heart was free from craft, 

No Puritan who broke his vow, 

Went by the name of Taft. 

Among these hills, with hardy toil, 

He worked his upward way. 

And helped to make the answering soil 

More fruitful every day; 

He left to us a heritage 

We fondly call our own, 

An honest life on every page. 

Where'er that life is known. 

He reverenced the Holy Book, 

And when the children came, 

The father uniformly took 

For each a Bible name; 

Proclaiming not his creed or sect. 

This simple fact we bring, 

'Tis always easy to detect 

The puritanic ring. 

His home was near the Nipmuck Lake, 

Where black bass now abound; 

He never heard of one clam bake, 

In all the country round; 



274 ALPHONSO TAFT 

He had to keep a sharp look out, 

With Indians hovering near, 

When wolf and bear and catamount 

Were often traveling here. 

The boys were trained to honest work. 

The girls were learned to spin, 

Each was ashamed to be a shirk. 

Out of the house or in; 

If they were living here and now, 

I wonder what they'd think, 

When hired servants milk the cow. 

And lead the horse to drink? 

When bonnets only touch the head. 

Held fast the Lord knows where, 

And the old-fashioned feather bed. 

Is now a thing so rare; 

When girls can hardly keep their breath, 

Without a screen or fan. 

And boys are frightened half to death 

At the mere sight of tan; 

When " seance circles " oft are found 

With music in the air. 

And old guitars go floating round. 

Saluting every chair; 

When those were hanged as witches once, 

Who made no such display. 

As many a man not deemed a dunce. 

May witness any day; 

When comets fly, and no alarm 

Disturbs the busy mind, 

And in the shop or on the farm. 

We leave them all behind; 

And though the earth doth overcast 

With shade the sun or moon, 

Each dark eclipse is quickly past. 

And light is shining soon! 

Oh that some artist had the power. 
With magic skill and grace, 
To give us for one passing hour 
The scenery of this place, 
Before the hand of toil had made 
A change in grove and glen, 
Eevealing now the forest shade 
Which veiled our fathers then. 



APPENDIX 275 

The flowing rivers gently ran 

Unheeded to the sea, 

Unruffled by the touch of man, 

And bird and fish were free; 

No reservoir among the hills, 

Stored up the treacherous flood, 

To make the little gushing rills 

Like one dark field of cloud. 

The granite hillsides were not then 

All written o'er with lies, 

Whereon a set of vandal men 

Had learned to advertise, 

And pills and plasters, bores and quacks, 

Who flourish so today, 

Were quickly set to imaking tracks, 

Or helped along their way. 

The music was the simplest kind. 

The melody of song, 

Not what the artists call refined. 

But somewhat over strong; 

Not as the lark at Heaven's gate sings. 

Serenely, sweet and clear. 

The harp, with just a thousand strings. 

Gave out its mvisic here. 

Log cabins flourished in the land. 

While carpets were unknown, 

Wben oloth was mainly wrought by hand^ 

And housewives made their own. 

And beaus fulfilled their weekly vow 

As skillfully as men. 

Who pay their smooth addresses now, 

Though fellows courted then. 

How rare and curious to the mind. 

The story of an age, 

A century before we find 

A Worcester County stage; 

When saddles were but luxuries, 

With pillions made to fit, 

Whereon some loving he and his 

So cosily could sit. 

When none by coach, canal or rail, 

In comfort spent the day, 

But travelers through this wooded vale 

So slowly made their way, 



276 ALPHONSO TAFT 

While Blackstone, with whose spreading fame, 

This valley now is full, 

Perambulated through the same, 

Transported by a bull. 

The germ of many a classic phrase 

Lies buried long ago, 

Far, far beyond our modern gaze, 

Too deep for us to know; 

But scholars now who know so well 

Of Blackstone's steed bovine. 

Are never troubled here to tell , 

The meaning of " BuUgine." 

Through busy years the race of Taft, 

Like bees, brought home its store, 

Or like an unadventurous craft. 

Still hugged the nearest shore. 

Till moved by a divine command 

Forbidding them to stay, 

Some scattered widely through the land, 

And bravely made their way. 

Though here the roots are buried deep, 

Though here the trunk is strong, 

Yet far and wide the branches sweep 

And help this swelling throng, 

On which the father of the race 

From his blest home on high, 

May gaze with bright and smiling face 

And a benignant eye. 

They greet us from the Granite Hills 

And from the State of Maine, 

Vermont her loyal quota fills, 

In sunshine and in rain, 

New York, though large, does not forget, 

Nor Rhody, though she's small, 

Connecticut remembers yet, 

Ohio knows us all. 

We gather from the sunny land, 

And from the prairied West, 

This homestead seems as calm and bland 

As Araby the blest, 

And every rock, and vale and hill 

WTiich we have loved so long, 

Joins with each sweetly singing rill 

In this day's parting song. 



APPENDIX 277 

Sentiments 
" Thoiig'li often called to the bench, this family is never 
required to answer at the bar." 

Responded to by Hon. Alphonso Taft, of Cincinnati, Ohio: 
Mr. President: Though surprised by this call to respond 
to the first toast, I thank you for the announcement in that 
toast, of a fact which cannot be disputed. The Tafts have 
needed no advocate at the bar of any criminal court in our 
country. They have wasted none of the time or money of 
the public by offenses requiring judicial investigations. But 
this day is far spent. I have had my share of it. There 
are many good speakers here present. Allow me to be silent, 
that their welcome voices may be heard. 

" As the Star of Empire westward takes its way, it is 
gratifying to know that the family name keeps pace with 
the Western Star," 

Responded to by Rev. Lovett Taft, of Columbus, Ohio: 

The sentiment to which I am called to respond, " West- 
ward the Star of Empire takes its way," is of somewhat 
doubtful application to myself. I hail from the capital of 
Ohio, and there we count that the Star of Empire has gone 
so far beyond us that we are scarcely westward. Away on 
beyond the " Father of Waters," its brightness and glory 
abides. 

But, seriously, the occasion that has called us together is 
one of deepest interest. I count one of the fortunate events 
of my life that I am permitted to be here today, to look into 
the faces of my kindred few of whom I have ever seen before. 
So many ! What a privilege ! I was rejoiced when I learned 
that this meeting was in contemplation. 

I was anticipating a Western tour for my summer vaca- 
tion, but when I was authoritatively informed of this meet- 
ing, I immediately changed my plan, and said to my wife, 
" We will go East and be present at the Taft gathering; " 
and here we are, glad and thankful. To see so many of my 
name is new to me. Tafts in Ohio, like angel's visits, are 
" few and far between." 



278 ALPHONSO TAFT 

I was born and reared in Ohio, and so my wife; we are 
natives of the soil. Her parents were the first joined in 
marriage in the city, after Columbus was located, in 1812. 

My calling is that of a Methodist itinerant; have been a 
member of the Ohio Annual Conference for twenty-two 
years ; have lived in various portions of the State, and bring 
to you greetings from a few Tafts in the central portions 
known to myself. Should we not derive some lessons from 
this occasion ? We shall never meet again. This is the first 
and will be the last time we shall look upon each other as 
kinsfolk in the flesh. 

How easy is the transition from this scene, where one 
man's descendants are gathered a gi*eat host, to that grander 
scene, where all the descendants of Adam shall be gathered 
for final approval or condemnation. ISTow as then, success 
or failure is individual. 

He who has succeeded in the race of life now, or shall 
succeed, has done or will do so by his personal effort. No 
royalty of blood, however noble the ancestry, can supersede 
individual effort. Thus in the things of the spirit. 

He who gains the true riches, and honor that comes from 
God, must himself be a worker together with God. Personal 
effort is the key of success. 

Our Heavenly Father wills our happiness and offers to 
us the blessings of the life that now is and of that which is 
to come, upon condition of faithful improvement of oppor- 
tunities. He has made the way plain to our eyes and pos- 
sible to our feet, and whosoever will may so run as to^ obtain. 

How happy shall we be in that great gathering of the 
earthly family, if we are found of the number to whom the 
Father will say, " Well done, good and faithful servant, thou 
hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler 
over many things. Enter thou into the joys of thy liOrd." 
Life's labor finished, life's great end accomplished, we shall 
come from the four quarters of the earth and sit down with 
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in the Kingdom of God, to go 
no more out forever. 

That we, who are related in the flesh and component parts 



APPENDIX 279 

of one great family on earth, may be also kindred in spirit 
and members of the household of faith, and family of God, 
heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, is the devout and 
earnest wish of your friend and brother. 

" In politics and statesmanship, Lieutenant-Governor R. 
S. Taft, of Burlington, Vt., will give us a lesson." 

Responded to by Lieutenant-Governor Taft. 

Mr. President, and (knowing no better term to use) 
Cousins: It has been said that one of the most important 
requisites for an after-dinner speech is an empty stomach. 
I think it would be no easy task to convince those that sat 
at the table where I did that I am in any condition to speak. 
I was hungry, for I was a long time coming; for though 
but a day's journey from here, it has been over a week since 
I left home. My neighbors bothered me so with questions 
that I wanted to leave. They noticed by the newspapers 
that there was to be a great gathering of Tafts in this State, 
and one pert young man wanted to know if it was going to 
be at Charlestown.* A week or two since, at Providence, 
the New England reformed men had a meeting, and some 
suggested that place as the one where I was going ; and when 
the Associated Press put an " R " in the word Diuikard, and 
thus made a national convention of Drunkards, they said they 
knew that was the meeting I was going to. Another young 
man inquired if we were expecting a large gathering. I 
told him about a thousand, and he exclaimed, " I declare ! 
What a chance to start a first-class lunatic asylum." An- 
other inquired where the meeting was to be, and I told him 
in Mendon (up in Vermont we call everything Mendon that 
ever was Mendon) and he wanted to know why the meeting 
was held there. I replied, of course, that it was in that 
town that our grandfather Robert, the ancestor of us all, 
settled about the year 1670 ; he said, " What a fortunate 
thing it would have been for the United States, if King 
Philip had happened around Mendon about that year." By 
this time I thought I had heard enough, and without paying 

* The location of the Massachusetts State Prison. 



280 ALPHONSO TAFT 

the greatest regard to the truth, I said to him that King 
Philip was here very often, that he and my grandfather 
Robert were great cronies, that they hunted and fished to- 
gether over all southern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, 
and that on the old homestead down here there was pre- 
served as a precious heirloom in the family a powder horn 
that " Phil " gave our grandfather one day when out hunt- 
ing, as a token of his great respect and esteem for the old 
gentleman; and that the very spot where Phil pitched his 
wig'wam when he came to visit grandfather was still in 
existence on the banks of Taft's Pond, and if they did not 
believe it that they could come down here and see the place 
itself. They said it must be so, and rather than hear any 
more of their talk I left them. 

And I have come down here, not to talk about politics 
or statesmanship, but for three things : First, for my dinner ; 
and in that I have succeeded beyond my most sanguine 
expectations. Second, to visit the homes of my ancestors; 
and yesterday I went to Mendon, and no true follower of 
Mahomet ever approached the shrines of Mecca with more 
reverent and devout feelings than I when I drew near the 
graves of four generations of my ancestors. I felt as though 
I was walking upon holy ground. I was inclined to take 
oif my shoes, and presume I should have done so, but the 
blackberry briars by the side of the road caused me to forego 
what might have been a sad experiment. Third, I came to 
find out whether I was an Irishman or not; and I suppose 
the Judge has told us all about that in the part of his address 
which for want of time he has not given us today. I am 
certain that every one present looks back with pride to our 
progenitor, to whom, two centuries since, these hills and 
valleys were familiar ground; and our pride will not be 
lessened by those who tell us that when one points back to 
his ancestors and boasts of his origin that the best part of 
him is under the ground, nor by Tennyson, who says that 
" The grand old gardener and his wife smile at the claims 
of long descent." " Kind hearts are more than coronets and 
simple faith than Norman blood." Physiological facts as- 



APPENDIX 281 

sure us that kind hearts and simple faiths can be transmitted 
as well as the glittering tiara of the prince, or the life blood 
of a Norman noble. 

I know the Koran reads, " Whosoever hath ancestors will 
derive no advantage from them with God ; " but why may 
not religious tendencies, and generous impulses, and an up- 
right character derived from one's ancestors, be credited to 
him in the heavenly books of the recording angel ! I there- 
fore glory in the fact that the blood of Eobert Taft runs in 
my veins, and am prouder of it today than I think the 
cavaliers upon the subject are to trace their pedigree directly 
back to Captain Kidd, Benedict Arnold, Judas Iscariot, or 
the apes of the ingenious Darwin. If they prefer the latter, 
they are welcome to their family tree. 

In my younger days I thought the whole family of Tafts 
were in my father's house, but one day I met a friend and 
he said to me, " There is a Taft girl in my house." I told 
him there werei several at mine. " But," he said, " it isn't 
one of your sisters ; she is a girl from abroad." So I went 
home with him, and to my utter astonishment I found a 
Taft that I never had seen or heard of before. So I knew 
there must be others besides my family; the first stranger 
one I ever saw is here today. She sits right over there 
(pointing at her) ; you might know she belonged to the 
Thomas branch by her good looks. Ah ! I fear I shall have 
to change that statement for she is shaking her head at me 
as much as to say that she doesn't belong to that branch at 
all, but is a veritable descendant of Uncle Daniel. The 
thought then occurred to me, where did we come from? I 
knew Taffe, as grandfather Robert's name was sometimes 
spelt, was an Irish name, and Taaffe a Scotch one. I looked 
on the map and I found in Persia a city named Taft; and 
so possibly I thought we might be Persians, and perchance 
the Doctor (Jonathan of Cincinnati) may trace us back to 
Darius, or King Cyrus. I noticed that in Austria there 
was a Count Van Taft; so it may be we are entitled to an 
Austrian origin. I knew my grandfather came from Men- 
don, and when I found in Savage's Geneological Dictionary 



282 ALPHO^^SO TAFT 

that Robert Taffe lived in Mendon in 1682, I thought he 
must have been the Taft from, whom we sprimg." But while 
thus speculating, I met a friend who spoke several languages, 
whose father, Greorge P. Marsh, the present United States 
minister at Italy, I knew was one of the greatest linguists 
of modern times, and I asked him from what nation I came. 
He said, judging bj the name, I was a Welshman. This 
satisfied me for the time, and until I ascertained that his 
authority in the matter was the melody Mother Goose, that 
" Taife was a Welchman," '' Taffe was " something else that 
it is not necessary for me to repeat. I stated to the young 
man that " I once heard a lawyer say that your father could 
lie in seventeen languages but without any hesitation I affirm 
that you are an improvement on the old man ; you are a chip 
of the old block." I then gave up speculating and came 
down to learn what I could on the subject at this meeting. 

But a word for the Vermont Tafts. There may be some 
at this dinner that have an idea that we have no Tafts in 
Vermont, but it is not so ; for when you talk of large families, 
go up there and you will be astonished at the records in our 
family Bibles. It takes a ream of foolscap occasionally to 
keep the records of a single family; for instance, there was 
Gideon Taft, born in Uxbridge, March 2, 1776, who went 
to Huntington, Vermont, in 1798; he literally, like Enoch 
of old, begat sons and daughters, for he had born unto him 
thirty children, the eldest, Lydia, on the 16th of October, 
1794, when he was eighteen years of age, and the youngest, 
Ann S., in April, 1848, in his seventy-third year. As the 
Dutchman says, " How high is that ? " 

The Tafts commenced emigTating to Vermont about a 
century since, nearly as soon as any one did. 

" They came to the State when the to^\^l was new, 
When the lordly pine and the hemlock grew 
In the place where the Court House stands; 
When the stunted ash and the alder black, 
The slender fir and the tamarack 
Stood thick on the meadow lands." 



APPENDIX 283 

There are descendants of all the branches in the State, and 
of four of them in the place where I reside. I have found 
them living in every county in our State save Grand Isle 
and Essex, the two having the smallest population, and I 
think that the fact that none of Uncle Robert's or Grand- 
father Thomas' descendants settled in the two counties suffi- 
ciently accoimts for the paucity of their population. 

But I cannot close without the suggestion of our duty here 
today, of taking some steps to provide a suitable monument 
to mark the graves and dwelling place of our con^mon par- 
ents, Robert and Sarah Taft. All that is required is a 
little organization, for I am confident that the sums neces- 
sary can be raised at once by simply letting the family know 
what is wanted; and I suggest a committee the following 
names which have been handed me: 

Hon. Velorous Taft, Upton, Mass.; Mr. Royal C. Taft, 
Providence, R. I. ; Mr. Moses Taft, Uxbridge, Mass. ; Hon. 
Henry Chapin, Worcester, Mass. ; Mr. P. W. Taft, Menton, 
Mass. 

And thanking you for your kind attention, I will simply 
say that when this family have another dinner, " may I be 
there to see." 

jSTote. — I have the names of twenty-five of the children 
of Gideon, and know some died unnamed, and I think five; 
but I shall have the question of the exact number decided 
shortly. R. S. T. 

" Having heard from the bench and expecting soon to 
hear from the bar, we expect now to hear from the Clerk of 
the Court as to the condition of the Taft docket." 

Responded to by Hon. Henry W. Taft, of Pittsfield, Mass. 

Mr. President: I am so conscious that there are very 
many here far better fitted than I am to entertain this 
audience that I should fail to respond to your invitation, 
but that I do not wish to appear destitute of interest in this 
family gathering or unwilling to contribute my share to the 
common fund. 

The circumstances of my life make this an occasion of 



284 ALPHONSO TAFT 

especial interest to me. In my boyhood, my father and 
grandfather were the only men who bore the name of Taft 
in the two contiguous tx)wiis which formed my world, while 
the Smiths, tbe Gunns, the Roots, and Graveses, and Hub- 
bards filled and possessed the land. I remember that I was 
troubled that there were so few of us, and feared that we 
belonged to some strange and worn-out race, astray it might 
be from some foreign fold, alien to the history and character 
of New England. But when I inquired into the matter, 
they told me there was no immediate prospect of the extinc- 
tion of our family name; that my great-grandfather had 
twenty-two children ; that his father had eighteen, and that 
far to the eastward there was a region, how dim and distant 
it was to my youthful imagination, but glowing with oriental 
beauty, where dwelt a goodly and numerous offspring of the 
race from which we sprung, blessed with flocks and herds 
and an abundance of good things ; so numerous, indeed, were 
they that over there in Uxbridge every man was a Taft, or 
it was at least the name of his mother or his wife. Yet such 
has been the fortune of my after life that up to yesterday 
I could count upon my fingers the names of all the Tafts I 
had ever seen, and today I feel like one who, after he has 
been kept out a great while, has been at last admitted within 
the family circle, and afforded an opportunity to become 
acquainted with his kindred. I am glad to meet you all. 
I knew not that I had among my cousins so many " fair 
women and brave men." As I look upon these thousand faces, 
I feel that I shall bear myself more proudly hereafter than 
I have been wont to do, because of my relationship to you. 
And now what can I say to you, beyond words of hearty 
congratulation and affectionate greeting. Isolated as I have 
been from the great body of our race, I have no anecdotes 
of family history to relate. I came here to learn and not 
to teach, and I have been instructed and delighted by the 
address to which we have listened, and which I am happy 
to be assured is to be preserved in an enduring form. I 
heartily second the suggestions which have been made, that 
this gathering should result in the erection of a monumental 



APPENDIX 285 

structure, and the compilation of a family history. We are 
sadly neglectful of those who have gone before us. For 
about the space of two generations they live in our memories, 
and we preserve their monuments ; beyond this, for the most 
part, we are ignorant of their characters and fortunes, often 
of their very names. This is unphilosophical as it is un- 
filial. There is abundant reason why we should preserve 
the memory of those to whom we owe our existence, — who 
subdued this land that it might be fit for us to dwell in — 
whose mental, moral and physical characteristics, transmit- 
ted to us in obedience to nature's law, contribute so largely 
to make us what we are today. 

I fear after all we have said or may say, of self-gratula- 
tion and praise, which the occasion justifies, that in the 
estimation of the world, we are not a distinguished race. 
In this presence I camiot forget the fact that we have worn 
the judicial ermine with ability and grace, and laid it down 
unstained ; that we have attained to gaibernatorial honors ; 
that the poetry that is in our nature cannot be smothered 
under a foreign name; that the Profile House and Point 
Shirley exist to testify to our success, when our philanthropy 
leads us to attempt to satisfy the cravings of the " inner 
man." That many of us have not been seated in the high 
places of power, filling the public eye and the public thought, 
is due, I conceive, rather to a modesty which has restrained 
self-assertion, and to the accidents of our relations, than to 
any deficiency of moral or mental fibre. 

I can appreciate the honorable pride with which one may 
look back on a long line of illustrious ancestors. An alli- 
ance in blood, with men who have been eminent for their 
virtues and their talents — exponents and leaders of public 
opinion, famous in the council and in the field — is not a 
light or valueless thing to one who recognizes the increased 
responsibility of him who comes of an honored historic race, 
and knows that his reputation rests upon his own character 
alone. If we cannot boast that ours is such a race, all that 
I have seen or heard on this occasion, confirms me in the 
belief that we may justly claim a record of character and 



286 ALPHONSO TAFT 

service, which in this republican land constitute a patent of 
true nobility. 

In a letter written as long ago as 1838 by the late Fred- 
eric Taft, Esq., of Uxbridge, then nearly four score, he thus 
sums up the family characteristics as the result of his own 
observation and the traditions of the past. I give his own 
quaint language: " The race of Taft as a name has been 
remarkable for its habits of industry, economy, morality and 
good citizenship both in Church and State affairs, as much 
so as any name among us. It is very rare that a Taft has 
been carried to the Poor-House, or been called before au- 
thority on criminal actions." I accept this characterization 
as true, on the word of one whom the oldest among you will 
remember, I think, as a true Christian gentleman. I trust 
it may be as true today as it was forty years ago. I ask fo^r 
no better descent, no higher ancestral honors. If it be true, 
it shows that our race belongs to that class which has made 
ITew England and the nation possible in all their past history 
and their probable future; that material, out of which the 
massive foundations and solid superstructure of our political 
and social fabric were builded. It was the patriotic en- 
durance of this class, in and out of New England, which 
made us an independent nation; it was the fortitude, the 
courage, the unyielding devotion of this same class which 
carried us through the conflict and saved the nation's life. 
The enlightened loyalty of our people was more to us than 
the wisdom of our statesmen, or the skill and valor of our 
commanders. Through the possession and exercise of these 
" habits of industry, economy and morality," this " good 
citizenship in church and state," our citizens have subdued 
the wilderness, founded new empires, and made the Ameri- 
can name and American institutions famous throughout the 
world. And if this republic shall ever perish, if our insti- 
tutions shall be essentially changed in their character, it will 
be because of the deterioration of what, for want of a better 
form, may be called the great middle class of our people. 
So long as this class remains preserved by sound morals, by 
habits of industiy and frugality from the degradation of 



APPENDIX 287 

poverty and vice — saved also in the good Providence of God 
from the perils and temptations of sudden, excessive wealth, 
— earnest, enlightened, conscientious in the assertion of their 
rights and the fulfillment of their duties, our future is secure. 
As a nation, we may have our periods of depression and 
disaster, but there is no difficulty which we shall not over- 
come, no peril which we shall not survive. If we are of and 
from this class, w© may be proud of our lineage, proud of 
the share we have had in our country's fortunes, though our 
common ancestor had no title to heraldic devices, no claim 
to gentle blood, and his foreign origin may be obscure or 
unknown. 

May this gathering, while it enlarges our acquaintance 
and strengthens tlie chain which bindsi us together, strengthen 
in us also the earnest purpose to cherish the manly virtues 
which we believe are the possession of our race, and to fulfill 
with our best endeavor all the social, moral and political 
duties which rest upon us. To you who have remained in 
the ancestral home, I desire to tender my grateful acknowl- 
edgment for the opportunity you have miade for this pleasant 
and profitable reunion, for your wise arrangements, your 
abounding hospitality. I am sure that those of us who are 
strangers here, if we have ever thought Uxbridge a good 
place to be bom in and to move away from, are certain now 
that it is a blessed place to come back to, and will go home 
with the resolve, if life is spared, to make it the shrine of 
many a future pilgrimage. 

" As no family can be successful without spiritual aid 
and comfort, this family has joined mito itself an honored 
son of ' Old Mother Mendon,' whose counsels, if well fol- 
lowed, will lead us into the right way." 

Responded to by Rev. Carlton A. Staples, of Providence: 
He claimed to be half Staples and half Taft, and the 
Staples part of him felt rather small today while the Taft 
part felt glorious. He pitied anybody who was not a Taft. 
He had felt some concern as to the birth of Robert, but 
finally came to the conclusion that he was a self-made man — 



288 ALPHONSO TAFT 

that he had neither father nor mother. Hunting up family 
history seemed to him like traveling a western highway- 
first a carriage road, then a bridle path, then a squirrel track, 
and then up a tree. He hoped, however, that in tracing out 
this family history, none of its members had been found 
" up a tree." 

Dr. E. M. Hatfield, of Philadelphia, was introduced by 
the President, and delivered the following: 

My only right to be with you and of you today rests on 
the fact that I had the good sense or the good fortune to 
marry one of the best of the Taft family. I took this step 
more than twenty-five years ago, when I was a young man, 
and have never repented of it since. I congTatulate myself 
on being in Uxbridge today. Gatherings such as this pro- 
mote the sweet charities of life and encourage the virtues 
by which families and communities are built up and estab- 
lished. The orator of the day, to whom we are indebted 
for the able and interesting address to which we have just 
listened, told us that it was not *'a weakness to appreciate 
the character and achievements of those who have preceded 
us, and to emulate their virtues." The appearance of the 
descendants of Robert Taft who are here assembled — and 
they are indeed a " multitudinous crowd " — is such as to 
encourage the hope that the family has not degenerated. 
For two hundred years the Tafts have been distinguished 
by substantial virtues rather than by the eccentricities of 
genius. Honest and industrious, energetic and frugal, they 
have secured respectability and usefulness; and no wonder, 
for these are the qualities that win the battle of life. I 
know not how it may be with the others, but my appreciation 
of practical men, the honest hard workers who bring some- 
thing to pass, grows year by year, as my knowledge of the 
world and of its needs increase. It is something to be a 
good dreamer or an eloquent talker, but it is far better to 
be a faithful and successful worker. Should I take on airs 
on account of the good looks of the company I see before 
me, I should be like the fellow who boasted that " Betsey 



APPENDIX 289 

and he had killed the bear ; " but I am proud of my wife's 
relatives today. I do not remember ever to have seen so 
large a company of well-dressed people together, with so few 
who have the appearance of being slaves of fashion. I 
hardly see a young woman who disfigures herself by the 
idiotic style of wearing the hair — (banging is the technical 
word that describes it, I think) ; and of the young men, there 
are few who have perfected themselves in the art of parting 
their hair in the middle. Straws show which way the wind 
blows, and the little things are often reliable indications of 
character. Many of us are surprised at the size of the 
present gathering, but we need not be, for the Tafts have 
been a prolific race from the first. And this is to be recog- 
nized as an honor to them and a blessing to the world. 
" Children are a heritage from the Lord. Happy is the 
man that hath his quiver full of them; they shall not be 
ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate." 
Few of the signs of the times are more alarming than the 
statistical facts with regard to the small number of children 
now foimd in American families, especially in families that 
belong to what are known as the upper classes in society. 
I cannot, of course, go into a discussion of this question at 
present, and before a promiscuous audience. But let me 
say one thing in passing, and I would like to say it in the 
most serious and emphatic manner: The condition of any 
country is deplorable indeed when its intelligent women 
depreciate the honors of maternity and undervalue the duties 
of domestic life. Whatever other spheres of activity and 
usefulness a woman may find, there is for her no place like 
home. The abominable French idea that one or two chil- 
dren may be very well, but that a large family is undesirable, 
threatens to undermine the foundations of all virtue in our 
country, and to prove our ruin as a people. Among all the 
benefactors of our race, there is no one for whom I feel a 
profounder respect than for the woman who is the mother 
of a large family of children, all of whom she trains to lives 
of honor and usefulness. The work is one that requires 
better qualities of head and heart than would suffice to make 



290 alpho:nso taft 

a respectable President of the United States. There has 
been no lack of good old-fashioned families among the Tafts. 
The five sons of Robert Taft had forty-five children among 
them, an average of nine for each family. Judge Taft told 
us this morning of a venerable lady who had borne fifteen 
children ; and of Samuel Taft, of Uxbridge, who had twenty- 
two children, most of whom lived to mature years and were 
married. I thought that was doing pretty well; but now 
Governor Taft comes along and reports a f ajnily in Vermont 
of thirty children, the last one of whom was bom when the 
father was seventy-four years of age. But enough on this 
subject; the Tafts have not been umnindful of the Divine 
command given first to Adam and Eve and afterwards re- 
peated to Noah and his sons : '' Be fruitful and multiply, 
and replenish the earth." May their descendants prove 
themselves worthy of such ancestors. 

We are reminded today of our indebtedness, and the in- 
debtedness of our whole country, to the old Puritan spirit 
and influence. It is fashionable now in certain quarters to 
disparage these old Puritans, and to speak in contemptuous 
terms of their narrowness and bigotry. Undoubtedly they 
had their faults, but the men who now abuse are not worthy 
to unloose the latchets of their shoes. They were honest, 
earnest and stout-hearted men who lived for a purpose, and 
left an inheritance to their children's children. They had 
few books and little time for the culture that is found in 
schools ; but they " trod the mountain-tops of thought," and 
grew strong in communion with God. The Bible, the im- 
mortal dream of the more than half-inspired tinker of Brad- 
ford Jail, with a few standard theological works, constituted 
their libraries. But they found in these books the seeds of 
thought, and as they drove their teams afield, felled the for- 
est, and planted and gathered their crops, they discussed 
questions of " Fixed fate, free will, fore-knowledge absolute," 
in a manner that would, I am afraid, cause grievous head- 
aches among many of the theological students of our day. 
" Old fogies " undoubtedly they were, in the vernacular of 
young America, and unblessed by many of our modern im- 



APPENDIX 291 

provements. They had no daily newspaper, with its dis- 
gusting records of vice and crime. These Puritan fathers 
must have been greatly wanting in the " general intelli- 
geince " of which we now hear so much. Every change in 
society is not an improvement, and it may be questioned 
whether much of the information that is derived from the 
daily papers is not a curse rather than a blessing. The Paul 
Prys of the press ferret out every scandal in private life, 
publish and gloat over and magnify it, until it becomes a 
nuisance in every family. Horse-races and dog-fights are 
reported with a painstaking accuracy that enables all the 
bartenders and stable-boys to keep themselves fully posted 
with regard to the performances of the most noted blood- 
horses and bulldogs in the country. The records of indecent 
and unnatural crimes are full, and are written with an 
abandon that makes them a perpetual fountain of pollution. 
Our forefathers, and our foremothers too, were fain to get 
along as best they could without these advantages. And 
they not only lived in respectability and comfort, but they 
reared families that have, under God, been the builders of 
this nation. I have seen something of our country, all the 
way from the coast where the Pilgrims landed to the shores 
of the Pacific. And you may take me blindfolded into any 
town or city between Boston or San Francisco and I will 
undertake to tell almost at a glance when the bandage is 
removed from my eyes whether the Puritan element is domi- 
nant in the place. The condition of churches and school- 
houses, the appearance of the people and of their homes, 
tell the story at once. If '' glory is to dwell in our land," 
and our country is to continue united and prosperous, we 
must hold fast to the Puritan Sabbath, the Puritan Bible, 
and be true to the God of our fathers. This cannot be done 
without intelligence and piety in the family, such as are 
found only where the wives and mothers are intelligent 
Christians. 

Thanking the friends who arranged for this pleasant gath- 
ering, I close with the prayer of the Psalmist, " That our 
sons may be as plants grown up in their youth, and that our 



292 ALPHONSO TAFT 

daughters may be as corner stones polished after similitude 
of a palace." 

" The educators of our country are entitled to the front 
rank in tlie march of progress, and it is with commendable 
pride that we introduce as one of the best, Professor S. H. 
Taft, President of Humboldt College, Iowa." 

Responded to by Professor Taft. 

Mr. Chairman and Kindred: It is not difficult to con- 
ceive of circumstances where it would be both profitable and 
pleasant in responding to the sentiment just read, to speak 
at length of the high mission and measureless influence of a 
true educator of the youth of our land. But this is not such 
an occasion, and I accept the sentiment with which my name 
is so pleasantly associated by the master of ceremonies as 
being presented in this connection simply to introduce me 
to this large family of Tafts, as one among many others 
whose chief attention is being devoted to the cause of Chris- 
tian education. Agreeing, therefore, with our distinguished 
representative, Judge Taft, of Cincinnati, that you would 
rather hear of our family affairs today than of other sub- 
jects, I will speak as seems to me fitting on this interesting 
occasion, which is essentially the bi-centennial celebration 
of the planting of our family tree in the 'New World. To 
me it is an occasion of very deep interest. We have been 
drawn together, not by the bonds of old-time friendships — 
for we are met for the first time — but by tbose of relation- 
ship. This is not so much a reunion as a first union of 
those of kindred blood, coming from different directions, and 
some from a great distance, to meet and commune where 
lived and died our ancestors, many generations ago. While 
there may be too much account made of birth and blood 
and name, there may also be too little account made of these. 
The ties of consanguinity are of nature's giving, of God's 
appointment, and were designed not only to yield innocent 
enjoyment, but also to conduce to healthful social progress 
and moral growth. There are stages of development (or 
states of moral debauchery rather) in the history of society, 
where such a gathering as this might prove a curse instead 



APPENDIX 203 

■ of a blessing, by being so devoted as to dim the moral and 
spiritual vision of its members. But not such will be the 
fruits gathered from this meeting; for I am sure that we 
shall each desire to give and receive of our best in thought 
and character. Thus doing, we shall part on a higher plane 
than we met upon, and so shed upon each other's future 
pathway the light of virtuous friendship. Not only shall 
we make acquaintance with each other, but we shall learn 
of our ancestry what many of us could not have known by 
any other means, and perhaps aid our relative of Ohio to 
round out and perfect his family tree. By many such 
knowledge is greatly prized. 

_ In illustration of this, permit me to read from a letter 
Jiist received from my eldest son, written after learning of 
this intended meeting. He says: "I have just seen the 
circular relative to the meeting of the descendants of Eobert 
Taft, to be held on the 12th. I very much hope (in fact 
I have no doubt) you will be there. It seems to me that if 
I was a man, and was able, I would not miss being there 
for a great deal." (I would remark, by the way, that al- 
though he speaks of himself as being a boy, he is considerably 
taller than I am, and has just closed a very successful term 
of teaching m the upper department of our villag-e school ) 
He proceeds to say: " I suppose you will there be able to 
Jearn more regarding the family tree than you have ever 
had opportunity to learn before, or may ever have again. 
You know I have considerable curiosity to find out all I can 
in that direction, and I hope you will be able to tell me a 
great deal that I may commit to writing, when you return 
home." 

There are doubtless many others, not here today, not less 
interested in this meeting than the one from who^so letter I 
have read. 

In reporting to this meeting regarding the Tafts of whom 
I have knowledge, I have to say that they are industrious 
frugal, worthy citizens, and were aU loyal to the government 
during our late Civil War. In religion, they are Protestants 
of the Protestants, not only denying the religious authority 



294 ALPHONSO TAFT 

of the Pope, but also denying the authority of anv ecclesi- 
astical body to legislate for the individual in matters of 
belief, faith or conscience. 

My genealogical report will be very brief, for the reason 
that my knowledge of the ancestral line is limited. I re- 
member that IsTasby once commenced a lecture in Boston by 
gravely saying : " Ladies and Gentlemen. — We are all de- 
scended from — we are all descended from — grand parents." 
Well, I had learned that much, and was quite certain that 
the line extended much further back. If I had heretofore 
entertained any doubts on that point, what I see and enjoy 
today would altogether remove them. My grandfather, 
ISTathaniel Taft, settled in Richmond, N. H., in the latter 
part of the eighteenth century, where he resided until his 
death. He had a number of children. Among the names, 
they bore were David, Daniel, Nathaniel, Rufus and Ste- 
phen, the last named being my father. His mother was 
grandfather's second wife. My father and his brother 
David left jN^ew Hampshire and settled in Richfield, Otsego 
County, N. Y., in the early part of this century, whence 
my father soon moved a hundred miles further west, into 
Oswego County, ]^. Y. Uncle David had a number of sons, 
two of whom, Ferdinand and Nathaniel, also moved into 
Oswego County. 

My father married a Miss Vienna Harris, whose father, 
Stephen Harris, lived and died in Richmond, N. H. My 
parents had seven children who lived to years of maturity — 
four girls and three boys — all but one of whom are still 
living. One of my brothers, Jerome B. Taft, whose name 
appears in the history of Kansas as one of its earlier settlers, 
died in the autumn of 1863. 

In 1853 I married a Miss Mary A. Burnham, of Madison 
County, 'N. Y., and in the spring of 1863 went West with a 
colony of over forty persons, and settled upon a tract of land 
in the Des Moines Valley, which I purchased of the State of 
Iowa. Here I have since been at work building up a town 
and establishing an institution of learning. We have had 
six children, five of whom are still living, namely, four sons 



APPENDIX 295 

and one daughter. My brother who is living, Lorenzo P. 
Taft, has a family of four daughters and one son, and the 
brother who died left one son, Wendell Phillips Taft. My 
four sisters are married, and all have families. 

I trust I shall be pardoned, Mr. Chairman, if in this 
connection I speak of some incidents in my ovni history 
which, under ordinary circumstances, would hardly be ad- 
missible, but which the present occasion seems to warrant. 
We learn from the admirable historic address to which we 
listened this morning that our great progenitor, Robert Taft, 
was an active participant in a colony enterprise, in con- 
nection with which he bought and sold much lond, built 
bridges, made roads, and bore other burdens incident to a 
pioneer life. 

It seems that all unbeknown to myself, I have in the order 
of Divine Providence been repeating the history of our 
family in the line of colony work, much the same as was 
being enacted here two hundred years ago; for as already 
remarked, I took with me to the distant West a company 
of friends, bought a large tract of wild land, and entered 
upon the work of building up society, in the course of which 
it fell my lot to open up roads, construct bridges, build mills, 
and dispose of numerous pieces of real estate. The county 
records show that I have sold over eighty farms and more 
than three hundred pieces of town property since commenc- 
ing this colony enterprise. This work has not been all sun- 
shine and prosperity, but instead, want of means with which 
to do, losses by floods, severe trial, exposure and sickness, 
have dimmed the light of many a day. But at no time have 
I been bereft of that hope and strength which comes of an 
assurance that I was doing the work to which I had been 
appointed to God. The burden would have been lighter 
could I have known, as I now do, that like and severe ex- 
posure had been the lot of our great progenitor whose mem- 
ory we so sacredly cherish today. 

The family history which I have given, taken in connec- 
tion with the numerous descendants of Robert Taft here 
assembled, who represent a still larger number not here, 



296 ALPHONSO TAFT 

warrants iis in congratnlating' ourselves that our family does 
not belong to the number which are running out because of 
their self-imposed sterility. That this is true of many- 
families is painfully evident. On this subject an able 
scholar and careful observer, Dr. Nathan Allen, of Lowell, 
said, in an address delivered in June last before the Massa- 
chusetts Medical Society : " It is safe, we believe, to state 
that the average number of children to each marriage has 
diminished nearly one-half since the present century com- 
menced." And he further adds: "If this decrease is con- 
tinued another hundred years in the same proportion as in 
the past, it will, in all probability, remove them (the old 
New England stock) from the stage. Their record will 
exist only in history. Here, in this quiet, gradual decline 
of population, is one of the gravest problems of this age." 
Well, Mr. Chairman, that impeachment does not apply to 
the Taft family, and I am glad of it. Am I told that little 
or no credit is due the male line, in which the name de- 
scends, since the mothers generally bore other names ? I 
answer that the large number here present bearing other 
names than Taft, but in whose veins flow the blood of our 
common ancestor, maintains the reputation of our family 
for vigor. And then I submit to you, Mr. Chairman, 
whether it is not creditable to our side of the house that we 
have been able to select and possess ourselves of such good 
and noble wives. And now, lest I be misunderstood. I 
desire to say a word to the husbands present; and I hope 
those absent, as also husbands yet to be, may hear of what I 
say. Of course, I don't want anybody but the family to 
hear, as it is altogether a family matter of which I speak. 
Among the functions with which God has endowed husband 
and wife, there is none higher or holier than that of repro- 
duction. By its exercise the earth and the heavens are 
peopled. Surely a partnership from which is to be derived 
such priceless dividends ought to be one of strict fidelity 
and abiding peace. And now that the family tree has taken 
such deep root, and spread so widely its branches, may we 
not properly in the future give even more thought than in 



APPENDIX 297 

the past to the quality of the fruit which it shall bear? 
Husbands ought not to require of their wives to go too fre- 
quently down to the gateway of death, whence they bring 
back our household treasures, but be careful that consenting 
harmony obtains in all the relations of wedded life. Then 
and only then can be attained the felicity of which Emerson 
sings : 

"From the pair is nothing hidden; 
To the twain is naught forbidden; 
Hand in hand the comrades go, 
Every nook of nature through; 
Each for other were they born; 
Each the other best adorn." 

I will add but a few words more. The growth of our 
family tree has been hopefully vigorous and promises well 
for the future. We need not concern ourselves to settle 
the question as to whether we originally ascended from the 
lower forms of animal life or have descended from a state of 
angelic perfection ; for if from the former, then have we made 
noble progress upward ; and if from the latter, the evidences 
warrant us in believing that we are making our way home 
again. Let us remember that there is given to mankind a 
surplus of vital force beyond what is necessary for the per- 
formance of the ordinary functions of life, and that the use 
made of this surplusage determines the destiny of individu- 
als, families and nations. If devoted to self-discipline in 
knowledge and virtue, so as to find expression in noble acts 
and high aims, then does its possessor walk the pathway of 
the just, which grows brighter and brighter to the perfect 
day; but if devoted to selfish ends and merely animal pleas- 
ures, then does it lead down to moral corruption and spiritual 
death. May it be ours to come into such harmony with the 
divine order, and such virtuous relationship with each other, 
that the spiritual breezes of heaven, as they breathe through 
the branches of the family tree, may make still sweeter 
music in the future than in the past, and thus make glad the 
hearts of men and angels. 

I offer in conclusion the following sentiment: 



298 ALPHOXSO TAFT 

Our Family Tree — Removed from old England, two hun- 
dred years ago, and planted at no great distance from Ply- 
mouth Eock : May it continue to gather strength and beauty 
from each succeeding century, and yield such fruits of 
vigorous, virtuous man and womanhood that the approbation 
of the good and the favor of heaven may ever rest upon it, 
causing it to extend its roots and multiply its branches 
through all coming time. 

Dr. Jonathan Taft, editor of a professional journal in 
Cincinnati, was called upon to respond to this sentiment, 
and did so in an eloquent manner, as follows : 

Friends and Kindred : From this day and occasion will 
rise a growing interest in our ancestry; we will desire to 
know more than hitherto of those who have gone before us, 
those from whom we have received a precious inheritance. 

Until within comparatively a recent period, scarcely any 
attention has been given, so far as I am aware, to the gene- 
alogy of the Taft family. The reason for this may not be 
very clear; it may be suggested, however, that the motives 
that have moved other families to this line of investigation 
have not been looked upon with favor by our own people, 
or it may be that, being a quiet, unostentatious and ease- 
loving people, with a desire to avoid prominence or special 
notoriety, they have been content to pursue the even tenor 
of their way, without much thought or knowledge of those 
who had gone before. For the first active efforts in de- 
veloping the genealogy of the Taft family, we are indebted 
to the late Peter R. Taft, of Cincinnati, the venerable father 
of our orator of this occasion, Judge Alphonso Taft. His 
attention was directed to this w^ork many years ago; it is 
one in which he took much interest. He had a great desire 
that the work should be perfected as far as possible, and in 
the work of this day we have evidence that his mantle has 
fallen to a large extent upon his son. 

The study of genealogy is exceedingly interesting; it gives 
a clear insight into things that would otherwise escape at- 
tention. It tends to give a broader and more expansive 
view of our common humanity. Its pursuits should not, 



APPENDIX 299 

and indeed cannot, have for its object the elevation of one 
family or name above others, nor for the purpose of making 
invidious comparisons ; nor is it worth the pursuit for mere 
pecuniary consideration. Occasional instances have occurred 
in which there was promise and hope in this direction ; the 
realization from such sources, however, has been so rare 
that they fail to produce effect upon any intelligent minds. 
I have never heard a suggestion that there was a possibility 
of anything of the kind in store for the Taft family, or any 
branch of it. 

IN^or is genealogy worth the pursuit for the maintenance 
of some supposed social or class superiority, for upon close 
inspection it will be found that nature has, upon the whole, 
not been partial in the bestowal of her gifts upon mankind. 
It is impossible for any in this age to establish or maintain 
special caste, or class based upon family or upon those who 
have gone before. In this country, hereditary and arbitrary 
class lines have disappeared and are fast fading away 
throughout the world. 

But it is interesting and instructive to make a retrospective 
examination of the generations of our lineage as far in the 
past as possible, that we may recognize, properly appreciate 
and improve whatever of distinctive and to us common in- 
heritance we may have received from our ancestors. Hered- 
itary traits, characteristics and qualities of goodness are of 
far more importance and value than those temporary out- 
croppings of character evolving striking examples of either 
physical, mental or moral greatness. 

As we study the history of an individual with a view of 
ascertaining what he was, — his circumstances and surround- 
ings, his resources, and his influence, what he accomplished 
and the elements of success, — so may we study races and 
families. In our own family not much has been done in a 
genealogical direction, and less has been done in biographical 
and historical elaboration. Doubtless much of the latter 
that woidd be valuable and interesting has, with the roll of 
years, passed beyond our reach ; but let us hasten to gather 
and put upon record that which remains, that those of the 



300 ALPHONSO TAFT 

future may stand in closer proximity to ns than it is pos- 
sible for us to stand witli those who have gone before us. 
For what we are able to gather of a historical nature, to- 
gether with the inheritance of physical, mental and moral 
endowments from our ancestors, we should be truly grateful. 

In the history of our family, I know of very little, indeed, 
of a prejudicial character, scarcely anything to cast a stain 
upon the name. Our ancestors have not transmitted to us 
a record blurred over with deeds of crime and disgrace ; the 
records come to us with as clear a page as that of the best 
families of our country. How the present generation will 
preserve this record clear remains for us to decide ; may 
that which is written of us be as free from taint as that which 
comes from them to us. Physically we have received from 
them a grand inheritance ; by this I do not mean that we are 
as the giants of old, nor that we outlive all other people, but 
observation warrants me in the assertion that our people 
have a remarkable freedom from many of those disabilities 
and predispositions that attach in a marked degree to a very 
large proportion of the human family. Our ancestors doubt- 
less possessed a physical endowment equaled by few and 
surpassed by none. The record of their longevity and ex- 
tent of their families bear ample testimony to the truth of 
this statement. A large number lived from seventy to ninety 
years, and many families numbered from fifteen to thirty 
children. 

The present generation of our family will exhibit a free- 
dom from taint and hereditary predisposition to diseases 
that is very rare indeed. In many families the seeds of 
disease are transmitted from generation to generation, as a 
never failing inheritance, producing untold suffering, both 
physical and mental. And thus it is that many families 
maintain an existence only by a ceaseless battle with these 
inherited disabilities; and many families, and even races, 
have become extinct. We should be happy and grateful 
that such is not our inheritance. Very rare, indeed, have 
been the instances in which undue appetite and passion have 
held domination over any of our name and kindred. The 



APPENDIX 301 

common vices, the indulgence and practice of which destroy, 
have not been inherited nor practiced, neither by our an- 
cestors nor by those of tlie present generation, as they un- 
fortunately have been by many others. 

Since we have received so noble and precious an inheri- 
tance, let it be transmitted to those who come after us, as 
pure and untarnished as we have received it; and let our 
lineage become purer and stronger in its onward course 
through the generations to come till it shall stand disem- 
thralled and redeemed from disease, suffering and premature 
dissolution, and death come only as that transition by which 
we shall pass from this life to one of grander and higher 
activities. 

Dr. Taft was followed by Prof. W. O. Perkins, of Boston, 
who spoke as follows : 

Friends, Relatives: I consider myself most fortunate 
in having been honored with an invitation to be present and 
participate in the festivities of this occasion. Although I 
do not bear the family name, I am proud to say that the 
blood of Robert Taft runs in my veins. In the countries 
of the old world, people pride themselves upon their an- 
cestry and the distance into the past to which they can trace 
their family name. In some countries the oldest son in- 
herits the property and title, if any, and the family history 
is kept unbroken in many cases for centuries. When the 
American colonies were fighting for independence, a young 
Norman sprout, from France, had the impudence to write 
a letter to General Washington, wherein he offered himself 
as a candidate for king in North America, and the principal 
argument that he presented in his own favor was that he 
could trace his family name farther back than William the 
Conqueror. 

In this country of democratic ideas, instead of worship- 
ing our ancestors as the Chinese are said to do, we are apt 
to forget from whom we are descended. The excessive ac- 
tivity, both of brain and muscle, the constant removal from 
the East to the West, the vast amount of territory of which 



302 ALPHONSO TAFT 

the country is composed, and the ahnost endless variety of 
pursuits open to all, conspire to separate sight of. Many 
persons do not know who their great-grandfather was, 
and have either forgotten or never knew their grandfather, 
and they never seem to have the remotest idea that their 
relationship extends beyond the limits of their own imme- 
diate family, or uncles, aunts and cousins of the first degTee. 

Now and then a rumor is set afloat by some hungry 
lawyer or pretended fortune-teller that an estate of several 
million pounds sterling is stowed away somewhere in old 
England ready to be distributed among the Johnson or 
Brown families in America. Then there is a flood of cor- 
respondence from the Johnsons or Browns from all over the 
country. But the expectation of becoming suddenly rich 
usually ends in learning something of their ancestry and the 
whereabouts of many of their numerous namesakes. 

Probably there is a large fortune somewhere ready for the 
Taft family, and as soon as it can be ascertained whether 
our primogenitor was an Englishman or Welshman, a Scotch- 
man or an Irishman, I shall expect to meet you all in Ux- 
bridge to receive our share of the inheritance. 

In countries like England, where society is made up of 
strata of caste or class, the children are expected to move in 
the same class and follow the same occupation as their par- 
ents. If a man blacks boots, probably his progenitor of one 
thousand years ago was a bootblack; if his ancestor was a 
lord, he retains the same title although a blockhead. But 
in this country every occupation and profession is open 
alike to all. The highest honors may fall upon the head of 
a rail-splitter. A tanner becomes General of the Army and 
President of the Republic. Although our honored ancestor 
was a carpenter and a farmer, I observe before me, among 
his posterity, those who have become eminent in nearly all 
the learned professions, in various business pursuits, and 
who occupy positions of public trust with credit. Sound 
common sense, integrity of purpose and unflinching perse- 
verance appear to be prominent traits of the family; and, 
in view of these characteristics, the tendency to long life 



APPENDIX 303 

and to rear large families, which indicate vigorous consti- 
tutions, I am of the opinion that the Taft family is a rising 
one. 

On the Taft side I am of the tribe of Benjamin, the fifth 
son of Robert — the seventh generation. Seth, grandson of 
Benjamin, had nine children, viz. : Prudence, Rhoda, ISTaomi, 
Stephen, Hannah, Benjamin, Seth, Jr., Daniel, and Henry. 
In 1790, Stephen, with his sister Prudence, went from 
Mendon to Woodstock, Vt., and settled in the place now 
called Taftsville. The other brothers and sisters, except 
Henry, soon followed, married, and settled in the vicinity. 
I do not propose to give you a history of this branch of the 
family, or pronoimce a eulogy upon any of its members; 
but I will speak briefly of some of the incidents connected 
with their settlement in this, then, new country. 

Some years ago, in Ohio, I saw a tree of the Taft family. 
Seth was represented on a short stump from the branch of 
Stephen, cut short off as though he had died without chil- 
dren. But I assure you that this was by no means the case 
with Seth or his children, or his children's children. With 
the fear of God before their eyes, they gave heed to the 
injunction to go forth and multiply and replenish the earth. 
The country was new and covered with trees, and if they 
could do little else at first, they could do as Ethan Allen 
told the British admiral the Vemionters did when asked 
what they could raise. " We build school-houses and raise 
men, sir." These pioneers were men and women of sterling, 
upright character, and their influence was felt in the com- 
munity and upon all with whom they came in contact. 
Stephen built the first dam across Quechee river, on one 
side of which he erected a saw-mill, and on the other a shop 
for the manufacture of scythes and other edged tools. Dan- 
iel in due time succeeded to the business, and by his skill 
and industry made the " Taft scythes and axes " famous. 
But Judge Taft, in his admirable address, has made so fit- 
ting a reference to this part of my subject that little more 
need be said. Daniel was the representative man of this 
b"anch of the family. He had a fine personal appearance, 



304 ALPHONSO TAFT 

quite tall and rather portly. He was possessed of a most 
pleasant and genial disposition, was skillful and industrious 
in his business, and so honest that his word Was as good as 
a draft on the bank or the records of the town clerk. What- 
ever " Uncle Daniel " said was taken for law and gospel. 
!N^either Daniel nor his brothers took a very active part in 
politics, but Daniel was for many years a justice of the 
peace, and represented his town in the State Legislature. 
Daniel had three sons: Daniel, Jr., Owen, and Paschal P. 
When the sons arrived at majority, the firm of " D. Taft 
& Sons " was formed, the business enlarged, and a foundry 
and machine shop added. The sons have occupied positions 
of trust in state and town matters, and continue to do so, 
except Owen, who died in 1860. Daniel died in 185Y, aged 
seventy-nine. 

The children of Seth, Jr., removed from the locality, and 
I have not been able to learn where they are. 

The sisters all raised large families, who with their chil- 
dren and children's children, are mostly living in the vicinity. 
My grandmother, Hannah Taft Perkins, lived to see sixty- 
two grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. She died 
in 1862, at the age of ninety-one years and six months, and 
the other sisters lived to the ages of ninety-four, eighty-eight 
and eighty-four. Several of the grandchildren of Hannah 
have risen to distinction. Mr. Edward Vaughan, a success- 
ful lawyer, is American consul at Coaticook, Canada. Mr. 
H. S. Perkins, of Chicago, is well known as a musical author. 
Mr. J. F. Perkins has won a world-wide reputation as a 
vocal artist, and occupies a position as primo basso at Her 
Majesty's Opera House, London, England. This branch of 
the family has always been loyal to principles of liberty and 
hiunan rights, and when the Star and Stripes were struck 
down at Fort Sumter many of them threw themselves into 
the contest, and some of them laid down their lives that the 
Union might live. 

I have heard that our progenitors in the distant past were 
Quakers, but there are no traces of Quakerism now. I 



APPENDIX ;305 

think, however, that the most of the descendants of Seth 
incline towards a liberal belief in religious matters. 

I trust that this occasion will furnish another example 
of the proof of the sentiment: "Behold, how good and 
how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." 
Our dwelling together will be of short duration, but truly 
pleasant; and may we improve the opportunity of forming 
an acquaintance with our kindred which shall result in 
friendly intercourse in the future. 

"The heaviest Taft of whom we have any record holds the 
County of Worcester in his mighty grasp. Having been 
for a dozen years or more the acknowledged head of the 
covmty, it is confidently believed that the county is not much 
ahead of him." 

Hon. Velorous Taft, of Upton, responded. He didn't 
know why he was called upon, unless it was because all who 
had preceded him were professional men, and some one was 
wanted to represent the common stock. The Tafts in his 
town were not speechmakers nor politicians, but there is an 
office they run to, — that of Overseer of the Poor. They 
were not talkers, but if there is anything to be done they 
can do it. 

Stephen S. Taft, of Palmer, hoped this occasion might 
not be an oasis in the desert of time, but that annual gather- 
ings of the family should be held in the good old town of 
Uxbridge. 

Col. H. C. Taft, the worthy chief marshal, was called for, 
but did not respond, probably owing to the duties of his 
position requiring his presence elsewhere. 

Henry G. Taft answered to " The Selectmen of Uxbridge," 
and said that he was proud to be even at the " tail end " of 
the present board. He thought the toastmaster, in calling 
for him to speak, must have felt as he did when he used to 
go fishing. He would start out with the determination to 



306 ALPHONSO TAFT 

catch a large string of big fish, but before he returned he 
was satisfied to take all the small ones that would bite. 
Believing this to be the case, he excused himself from making 
further remarks. 

Reuben E. Dodge was the last speaker. He explained 
the relationship existing between the Taft and Rawson fami- 
lies, and invited all relatives of the latter to attend the re- 
union to be held in the city of Worcester. 

On motion of Hon. Henry Chapin, it was voted that the 
thanks of the gathering be extended to Judge Alphonso Taft 
for his valuable address, and that he be requested to furnish 
a copy for publication. On motion of Hon. Velorous Taft, 
a vote of thanks was also extended to Judge Chapin for his 
admirable poem, and a copy requested for publication. 

The parting song, written by Judge Chapin, was sung by 
the select choir and congregation, accompanied by the band : 

The summer breezes play 
lipon this festal day, 
^Vhell chiklren come 
To greet the father-land, 
To olasp each other's hand, 
\^niile lovingly they stand 
Near the old home. 

Home where the fathers dwelt. 

Home where the loved ones knelt 

At noon and eve; 

Like birdlings to their nest, 

Thy offspring come to rest, 

And on thy loving breast 

Rich garlands leave. 

Along this beauteous scene, 
This valley fair and green, 
The river flows 
Beside whose gentle stream, 
On many a tender theme, 
We sit and fondly dream 
In sweet repose. 



APPENDIX 307 

Our father's home, farewell ; 
Thy name with us shall dwell 
Where'er we roam. 
To thee our gifts we bring, 
To thee our hearts shall cling, 
While oft our lips shall sing: 
God bless our home! 

At the suggestion of the committee of arrangements, the 
chainnan appointed a meeting in the Unitarian vestry, in 
the evening, for the purpose of forming a permanent organ- 
ization. The exercises in the tent then closed with the 
benediction, pronounced by Rev. Lovett Taft, 

Pursuant to the call of the President, a meeting was held 
in the evening, at which the following officers were chosen 
to form a permanent organization: 

President — Daniel W. Taft, of Uxbridge, Mass. 

First Vice-President — Hon. Alphonso Taft, of Cincin- 
nati, Ohio. 

Second Vice-President — Lieut.-Gov. R. S. Taft, of Bur- 
ling-ton, Vt. 

Secretary — Charles A. Taft, of Uxbridge, Mass. 

Treasurer — Hon. Velorous Taft, of Upton, Mass. 

The officers were empowered to fill any vacancies which 
might occur. 



THE LIFE OF ALPHONSO TAFT 

BY 

Lewis A. Leonard 



Price $3.50 per copy 



THE HAWKE PUBLISHING COMPANY, NEW YORK 

THE ENTERPRISE BOOK CONCERN, ALBANY 

And All Booksellers 



THE LIFE OF CHARLES CARROLL 

OF CARROLLTON 



BY 



Lewis A. Leonard 



Price $2.50 per copy 



MOFFAT, YARD & CO., NEW YORK 

THE ENTERPRISE BOOK CONCERN, ALBANY 

And All Booksellers 



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